JESUS 


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DWIGHT  GODMRD 


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PRINCETON,  N.J. 


Presented   by  3\n  ^    CAu\VnOV-; 


BV  4501  .G62  1916  c.l 

Goddard,  Dwight,  1861- 

-1939. 

Jesus  and  the  problem 

of 

human  life 

Jesus 

And  the  Problem  of  Human  Life 


WORKS    BY 

DWIGHT  GODDARD 


JESUS 


And  the  Problems  of 
Human  Life 

I2mo,  clothy  nety  ^O  cents 
These  discourses  show  the  value  and  use- 
fulness of  the  Good  News  of  a  Spiritual 
Realm  and  the  Way  of  Salvation  to  anyone 
who  has  felt  a  desire  to  make  that  supreme 
adventure  in  faith.  They  set  the  **Good 
News"  into  its  right  relation  with  present- 
day  thought. 


THE  GOOD  NEWS 

Of  a  Spiritual  Realm 
Paraphrased  by  Dwight  Goddard 

Second  Edition,  i2mo,  cloth,  net,  $r.00 
An  interweaving  and  paraphrasing  of  the 
Four  Gospels,  bringing  out  clearly  the  unity 
and  reasonableness  of  Jesus*  Life  and  Teach- 
ings. Appropriate  for  devotional  reading, 
study  classes,  and  as  a  gift  book  to  those  we 
would  like  to  become  interested  in  our  Lord. 


Jesus 

And  the  Problem  of  Human  Life 
A  Threefold  Sermon 


By 

dwight'goddard 


New    York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming     H.    Revell    Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  191 6,  by 
DWIGHT  GODDARD 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:      100    Princes    Street 


To  my  classmates  of  the  Class  of  Ninety-Four 
Hartford  Theological  Seminary 

Ozora  vS".  DaviSy  President 

Chicago  Theological  Seminary 

Willard  L,  Beard^  President  Foochow  College 

Iso  AbCf  Dean  of  Sociology  Faculty, 

Waseda  University 

Frank  S.  Brewer ^  Dean  of  Theological  Faculty ^ 

Taladega  College 

Frederick  A,  Sumner^  Minister ^  Connecticut 

Thomas  f.  Bell,  Secretary 

Colored  K  M,  C  A.,  New  York  City 


Preface 

IN  the  early  part  of  1915  there  was  sent  out 
to  personal  friends  of  the  author  an  inter- 
weaving of  the  Four  Gospels  into  one  con- 
nected account  of  the  life  and  the  teachings  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  in  which  the  attempt  had 
been  made  by  free  translation  and  paraphrase 
to  bring  out  their  unity  from  a  modern  point  of 
view. 

From  the  hundreds  of  letters  that  were  re- 
ceived and  the  conversations  that  were  held,  it 
became  evident  that  a  new  line  of  appreciation 
for  the  Good  News  of  a  Spiritual  Kealm  and 
the  Way  6f  Salvation  had  been  opened.  The 
present  sermons  are  an  attempt  to  set  this 
Good  News  of  a  Spiritual  Eealin  into  relation 
to  present-day  thought,  and  to  show  its  value 
and  usefulness  to  any  one  who  has  felt  a  desire 
to  make  that  supreme  adventure  in  faith,  a 
quest  for  a  higher  spiritual  life,  with  Jesus  as  a 
guide,  an  inspiration,  and  a  Saviour. 

DWIGHT   GODDARD. 
Ann  Arbor  J  Michigan, 


Contents 

I.  Three  Possible  Solutions  of 

THE  Problem  of  Human  Life  .    1 1 

II.  Jesus'  Solution  of  the  Prob- 

lem OF  Human  Life        .       .    35 

III.  How  TO  Live  as  Jesus  Taught    67 


I 


Three  Possible  Solutions  of  the  Prob- 
lem of  Human  Life 


**  Our  Hff,  says  Eucken,  does  not  move  on  a  single  level, 
but  upon  two  levels  at  once — the  natural  and  the  spiritual. 
The  key  to  the  puzzle  of  man  lies  in  the  fact  that  he  is 
'  the  meeting  point  of  various  stages  of  Reality »*  All  his 
difficulties  and  his  triumphs  are  grounded  in  this.  The 
whole  question  for  him  is,  which  world  shall  be  central  for 
him — the  real,  vital,  all-embracing  life  we  call  Spirit,  or 
the  lower  life  of  sense?** — Evelyn  Underhill. 

*«  ,  .  .  there  remains  only  the  inexorable  *  either- 
or  *  :  either  the  power  of  a  new  world  is  operative  in  man, 
and  makes  him  strong  outwardly  and  inwardly,  or  the 
whole  life  of  man  is  spiritually  lost,  a  great  illusion^  a 
great  error** — Rudolf  Eucken. 

**  The  root  question  or  outstanding  controversy  between 
science  and  faith  rests  upon  two  different  conceptions  of  the 
universe.  The  one  that  of  a  self  contained  and  self  suffi- 
cient universe  with  no  outlook  into,  or  links  with  anything 
beyond,  .  .  .  and  the  other  conception^  that  of  a 
universe  lying  open  to  all  manner  of  spiritual  influences, 
permeated  through  and  through  with  a  Divine  Spirit, 
.  .  .  a  universe  by  no  means  self  sufficient  or  self-con- 
tained but  with  feelers  at  every  pore  groping  into  another 
supersensuous  order  of  existence.** — Sir.  Oliver  Lodge. 


Three  Possible  Solutions  of  the  Prob- 
lem of  Human  Life 

ONE  of  the  strange  things  to  a  foreigner 
going  into  China  is  to  see  the  natives 
openly  worshipping  at  different  tem- 
ples at  different  times.  The  Chinaman  is  a 
Confucianist  in  social  relations  and  in  official 
life ;  when  he  wishes  to  find  a  lucky  day  for 
embarking  in  business,  or  building  a  house,  or 
getting  married,  he  is  a  Taoist ;  and  when  it 
comes  to  sickness  or  death  in  the  family  he  is  a 
Buddhist. ' 

This  sort  of  thing  appears  strange  to  us  who 
are  accustomed  to  think  that  religion,  and 
morals,  and  truth  are  almost  synonymous.  But 
wait  a  moment,  is  this  so  very  different  from 
what  we  see  about  us  every  day  ?  In  business 
and  social  relations  we  see  crowds  of  people 
worshipping  the  god  of  money,  Mammon,  or 
Billikin,  the  god  of  things  as  they  are.  The 
people  who  do  this  are  believers  in  a  kind  of 
naturalistic  or  scientific  interpretation  of  life 
that  I  am  going  to  explain  more  fully  in  a  few 
minutes. 


14  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

Now  when  these  same  people  attend  lectures 
or  read  books  and  try  to  think  a  little  more 
seriously  than  common,  when  they  let  the  in- 
tellectual side  of  their  nature  come  to  the  sur- 
face and  they  become  conscious  of  ideals  of 
beauty  and  service  and  conduct,  then  they  are 
worshipping  at  the  shrine  of  intellectual  ideal- 
ism, about  which  I  am  also  going  to  speak  more 
fully  in  a  few  moments. 

Now  once  again,  there  come  to  these  very 
same  people,  as  to  every  one,  times  of  sorrow, 
or  moral  conflict,  or  of  sickness,  when  the 
charms  of  pleasure  and  power  and  the  excite- 
ment of  business  turn  to  ashes,  when  even  the 
airy  fabric  of  their  ideals  seems  unreal  and  all 
that  but  yesterday  seemed  most  substantial 
now  seems  vanishing  into  thin  air.  At  such 
times  as  these  when  pain  and  sorrow  and  lone- 
liness are  insistent  then  these  same  people  turn 
to  worship  the  Christian's  God  of  Mercy ;  and 
they  do  it  without  the  least  thought  that  they 
are  in  a  religious  sense  inconsistent. 

How  very,  very  few  are  the  ones  among  our 
own  people  that  always  worship  at  the  same 
shrine  ;  that  are  just  the  same  in  their  religious 
devotions  whether  in  times  of  sickness  or  pleas- 
ure, in  wealth  or  in  poverty,  in  the  stress  of  busi- 
ness or  the  leisure  of  reading.  Is  it  not  true 
that  most  of  us  meet  the  different  situations  of 
life  in  a  kind  of  hit  or  miss  fashion  ?    I  do  not 


Possible  Solutions  of  the  Problem     15 

think  that  any  one  intends  to  be  hypocritical  or 
inconsistent  in  their  religious  life,  but  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  they  are  often  very  inconsistent  and 
habitually  change  the  expression  of  such  relig- 
ious faith  as  they  have,  as  the  day  brings 
business  or  pleasure,  leisure  for  intellectual 
study,  the  hour  of  church  worship,  or  the  crucial 
time  of  sickness  or  of  misfortune. 

It  is  hardly  right  to  call  such  faith  religious 
at  all,  it  is  so  formal  and  hypocritical,  so  empty 
and  selfish.  It  borrows  the  form  of  religion 
without  its  heart  and  its  virility.  It  is  usually 
the  inherited  faith  of  some  godly  parent  or 
ancestor,  but  so  diluted  that  it  does  not  call  for 
personal  hardship  or  self-denial,  and  sometimes 
it  is  the  remnant  of  an  earlier  personal  faith 
that  has  lost  its  force.  It  usually  accepts  some 
idea  of  an  overruling  providence,  but  thinks  in 
a  hazy  way  that  if  one  observes  some  routine 
ceremonial,  or  joins  the  church,  or  lives  up  to 
the  conventional  ethics  of  the  day,  that  in  some 
general  way  things  will  work  out  all  right  in 
the  end. 

Am  I  exaggerating  if  I  assert  that  our  times 
are  characterized  by  this  absence  of  any  clear 
and  definite  religious  faith  ?  If  this  is  true,  and 
I  do  not  see  how  any  one  can  help  but  agree 
with  me  that  it  is  true,  there  must  be  some  good 
reason  for  it.  The  reason  that  I  offer  for  this 
general   lack  of   deep  religious  faith  is  this : 


i6  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

There  is  a  general  lack  of  understanding  of  the 
fundamental  problem  of  human  life.  In  fact 
very  few  people  appear  to  understand  that 
there  is  any  such  problem  at  all,  and  fewer  still 
are  the  ones  who  have  thought  out  any  reason- 
able explanation  or  solution  of  this  most  serious 
problem. 

The  purpose  of  this  sermon  is  to  bring  this 
great  problem  of  human  life  clearly  before  the 
mind  and  then  to  consider  three  possible  ways 
of  explaining  it. 

First  let  us  get  the  problem  clearly  before  us. 
When  we  begin  to  think  about  the  place  that 
man  occupies  in  the  universe  we  are  confronted 
by  emphatic  contradictions.  Man  appears  to  be 
the  chief  end  of  nature,  but  we  see  him  forever 
at  war  with  his  natural  environment.  When 
he  succeeds  most  in  a  worldly  sense,  he  has  the 
strongest  kind  of  an  inner  feeling  of  shame  and 
defeat.  We  are  conscious  of  natural  appetites, 
desires,  and  passions,  that  are  flatly  opposed  by 
the  aspirations  of  a  spirit  or  soul  within.  We 
can  explain  almost  all  his  faculties  and  powers 
as  a  development  from  a  simple  beginning  to 
their  present  complexity,  but  we  cannot  explain 
all.  There  always  remains  something  in  the 
ideals  of  man,  in  his  spiritual  longings,  and  his 
altruistic  unselfishness,  that  is  inexplicable  from 
any  scientific  standpoint. 

Why  are  we  naturally  selfish  and  yet  honor 


Possible  Solutions  of  the  Problem     17 

altruism  ?  Why  is  a  man  ever  willing  to  lay 
down  his  life  for  another  ?  Why  is  a  man 
willing  to  forego  comfort  and  convenience  in 
order  to  satisfy  an  inner  desire  for  the  good, 
the  true  and  the  beautiful  ?  To  explain  these 
contradictions  is  the  problem  of  human  life. 

There  are  three  common  ways  of  attempting 
the  explanation  and  as  we  accept  one  or  the 
other  we  very  largely  condition  the  conduct  of 
our  lives  and  our  religious  faith.  These  three 
ways  are  as  follows :  First,  The  scientific  or 
naturalistic.  Second,  The  idealistic.  Third, 
The  spiritualistic. 

In  order  that  we  may  face  the  problem  of  life 
with  more  confidence  and  intelligence,  and  have 
a  surer  ground  for  our  religious  faith,  it  is 
worth  while  to  study  carefully  these  three  ex- 
planations. 

The  scientific,  or  the  naturalistic,  explanation 
is  based  on  a  scientific  study  of  nature.  Ac- 
cording to  scientists,  there  is  but  one  realm  of 
reality,  the  natural  universe  ;  everything  that  is 
can  be  studied  and  known  ;  everything  that  is 
is  a  coordination  of  cause  and  effect  under  the 
interaction  of  so-called  natural  laws,  which  if 
fully  understood  would  furnish  a  sufficient  ex- 
planation of  all  phenomena.  The  result  of 
cause  and  effect  operating  in  a  domain  of  time 
and  space  is  universal  motion  and  incessant 
change.      There    is  going  on  an  incessantly 


i8  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

changing  correspondence  with  a  constantly 
changing  environment,  resulting  in  unlimited 
variations  and  endless  struggle  for  existence, 
and  a  consequent  survival  of  the  fittest.  Birth, 
growth,  struggle,  decay,  death,  is  the  inevitable 
cycle  of  a  universal  natural  experience. 

The  human  soul  is  simply  the  highest  and 
most  complex  result  of  this  natural  evolution. 
Because  of  his  good  fortune  in  possessing  an  in- 
tellect, by  reason  of  which  he  can  take  advan- 
tage of  natural  laws  to  control  them  for  his 
own  benefit,  man  is  in  a  better  position  to 
survive  in  this  cosmic  struggle.  Ideals  and 
aspirations  are  the  inherited  accretions  of 
millenniums  of  experience  that  have  been  passed 
down  by  the  laws  of  heredity  to  be  interpreted 
by  the  intuitive  faculties  as  a  guide  in  the 
inevitable  struggle  for  self-assertion  and  self- 
preservation,  and  as  a  guarantee  for  the  further 
development  of  the  organism. 

The  answer  of  naturalism,  then,  to  the  prob- 
lem of  human  life  is:  that  the  contradictions 
are  only  seeming  and  are  the  questions  that  the 
mind  raises  as  to  whether  the  immediate  hap- 
piness that  will  come  from  gratifying  a  present 
physical  appetite  is  more  to  be  desired  than  the 
more  remote  happiness  that  will  come  to  one 
from  considering  social  well-being,  the  larger 
future  good  that  will  come  from  a  present  self- 
denial. 


Possible  Solutions  of  the  Problem     19 

The  second  or  idealistic  explanation  starts 
with  much  the  same  scientific  explanation  of 
natural  phenomena,  but  parts  company  with  it 
in  its  conclusions.  The  ultra  naturalist  says 
that  the  interaction  of  natural  forces  is  a  suffi- 
cient explanation  of  all  phenomena.  The  intel- 
lectual idealist  says,  no,  it  is  not  sufficient,  it  is 
too  mechanical.  Even  a  man  has  a  purpose  in 
life  and  plans  his  work.  Surely  in  nature  there 
must  be  some  purpose,  some  plan,  some  life 
process.  So  the  idealist  sees  back  of  the  uni- 
verse an  intelligent  purpose,  or  an  ideal,  towards 
which  everything  is  tending.  Some  idealists 
see  God  in  this  Ideal ;  others  see  only  an  ideal 
goal ;  still  others  are  satisfied  with  the  thought 
that  back  of  the  universal  life  process  is  intelli- 
gence. But  all  alike  question  the  existence  of 
anything  outside  the  natural  realm  to  aid  one 
in  attaining  the  ideal  other  than  the  help  that 
comes  from  keeping  our  lives  in  harmony  with 
the  ideal  or  with  the  ideal  life  process. 

The  intellectual  idealist  explains  the  problem 
of  life  by  saying  that  it  is  the  conflict  in  a 
man's  mind  that  goes  on  when  he  comes  to 
choose  between  a  natural  good  and  an  ideal 
good.  To  both  the  naturalist  and  the  idealist 
the  conflict  is  all  within  the  one  realm  of  a 
universal  nature;  they  differ  as  to  whether 
there  is  above  nature  an  intelligent  and  moral 
purpose. 


20  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

The  spiritualistic  explanation  of  this  problem 
of  life  starts  with  the  assertion  that  human 
beings  have  connections  with  two  entirely  dis- 
tinct and  independent  orders  of  reality.  First, 
they  are  children  of  nature  and  live  in  a  world 
of  nature.  Second,  they  have  kinship  in  the 
Spiritual  Eealm  also,  and  the  antagonisms  of 
life  are  explained  by  natural  life  pulling  one 
way  and  the  spiritual  life  pulling  another  way. 

As  children  of  nature  we  are  subject  to  all 
the  natural  laws.  "We  are  conscious  of  being 
surrounded  by  multitudes  of  other  human  be- 
ings all  engaged  in  a  life  struggle  with  a  more 
or  less  hostile  environment.  Physical  advan- 
tage is  measured  by  strength  of  body  and  clever- 
ness of  mind.  Natural  happiness  is  sensual 
enjoyment ;  natural  success  is  survival  and  the 
accumulation  of  advantage  and  position,  with 
the  consciousness  that  we  must  inevitably  fol- 
low the  usual  natural  cycle  of  birth,  growth, 
labor,  decay,  death. 

But  in  the  spiritualistic  explanation  this  is 
only  one  side  of  life,  the  natural  side.  There 
is  another  and  a  brighter  side,  the  spiritual 
side.  Human  beings  have  also  kinship  in  a 
Spiritual  Kealm.  Just  as  the  intellect  is  given 
us  so  that  we  may  take  advantage  of  sense  per- 
ception, memory  and  reason,  in  the  struggle  for 
existence,  so  the  intuitive  faculties  are  given 
to  human  beings  to  sense  the  immaterial  and 


Possible  Solutions  of  the  Problem     2 1 

spiritual  forces  such  as  the  forces  of  love,  friend- 
ship, faith,  honor  and  duty,  that  are  all  about 
us  and  to  which  human  beings  are  susceptible. 
There  is  certainly  something  within  us  that 
responds  to  these  spiritual  forces,  that  demands 
our  allegiance,  that  speaks  of  moral  duty.  We 
have  inner  visions  of  something  better  than 
physical  strength  and  mental  cleverness;  we 
feel  instinctively  that  our  highest  interests  are 
not  with  nature  and  that  we  have  a  moral  right 
to  rebel  against  nature's  determinism.  We  even 
feel  that  we  are  superior  to  natural  time  and 
space;  that  life  for  us  may  mean  far  more 
than  mere  natural  existence.  In  fact  the  pres- 
ence of  so  universal  a  longing  for  the  homeland 
of  the  soul  becomes  a  proof  that  there  must 
be  reality  where  so  general  a  longing  may  be 
satisfied. 

We  saw  that  the  scientific  naturalist  was 
content  to  believe  that  the  antagonism  in  a 
man's  soul  between  the  natural  desires  and  the 
spiritual  aspirations  was  but  the  jogging  of  the 
memory  to  remind  him  that  the  more  remote 
or  social  good  might  be  better  for  him  than  the 
immediate  gratification  of  some  physical  de- 
sire. To  the  one  who  believes  in  the  spiritual- 
istic explanation,  this  is  far  too  trivial  a  reply. 
To  the  spiritually  minded  man  the  antagonisms 
of  life  are  a  life  and  death  struggle  for  the  pos- 
session of  a  soul.     On  the  one  hand  he  sees  a 


22  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

world  of  nature  pulling  him  down  to  its  own 
low  level ;  on  the  other  hand  he  sees  a  realm  of 
the  spirit  calling  him  upward  to  a  higher  order 
of  life  and,  not  only  calling  him,  but  offering 
help  in  his  honest  efforts  to  reach  the  higher  and 
the  nobler  life. 

To  the  man  who  cherishes  the  spiritualistic 
explanation  there  is  very  good  reason  why  he 
should  be  dissatisfied  with  the  lower  and  tem- 
porary and  sordid  pleasures  of  the  senses,  be- 
cause he  sees  just  within  his  reach  the  more 
satisfying  joys  of  a  timeless  spiritual  life. 

Having  before  us  now  the  three  explanations 
of  this  problem  of  life,  let  us  compare  them,  to 
see  which  is  the  most  reasonable.  Let  us  freely 
admit  that  natural  science  has  thrown  a  flood 
of  light  on  the  problem  of  life,  and  has  cor- 
rected many  false  notions,  but  let  us  hesitate 
to  believe  that  it  has  solved  the  problem.  The 
reason  that  it  has  not  solved  the  problem  is 
this :  it  persists  in  maintaining  that  there  is 
but  one  side  to  life  and  that  the  natural  side  ; 
it  persists  in  maintaining  that  everything  that 
is  real  can  be  examined  by  test  tube  and  micro- 
scope ;  it  persists  in  holding  that  the  interaction 
of  natural  forces  is  a  sufficient  explanation  of 
all  the  phenomena  of  the  universe. 

We  have  the  right  to  ask  how  the  microscope 
can  explain  the  feeling  that  comes  over  us  at 
times  that  we  have  a  right  to  dominate  nature  ? 


Possible  Solutions  of  the  Problem     23 

"We  may  feel  ignorant  as  to  how  we  may  claim 
and  use  this  higher  power  and  yet  feel  certain 
as  to  its  reality.  Science  tells  us  that  it  is  a 
superstition  and  reminds  us  of  our  limitations. 
How  can  a  laboratory  explain  our  intuitive 
sense  as  to  right  and  wrong  ?  The  very  gen- 
eral belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  of 
a  life  after  death  are  too  ingrained  in  our  deep- 
est consciousness  to  be  easily  laughed  out  of 
court  by  some  cock-sure  natural  scientist  re- 
ferring to  the  book  and  page  where  it  says  that 
time  and  space  are  universal  and  that  natural 
law  explains  everything. 

The  fundamental  law  of  nature  is  self-pres- 
ervation, but  humanity  is  continually  overriding 
that  law  and  making  altruism  and  heroic  self- 
denying  service  its  rallying  cry.  When  nature 
is  most  heartless  that  clarion  call  to  self-forget- 
ting service  wins  the  day  and  the  first  law  of 
nature  is  forgotten.  Nature  can  explain  a 
narrow  selfish  love  for  one's  family,  or  for  some 
benefactor,  but  unselfish  love,  "The  greatest 
thing  in  the  world,"  it  cannot  explain. 

It  is  not  enough  to  claim  that  evolution  is 
slowly  but  surely  lifting  humanity  towards  a 
higher  type  of  life  and  society;  it  is  not 
enough  to  claim  that  although  there  is  uni- 
versal death  of  individuals  that  there  is  a 
racial  advance.  Some  more  adequate  expla- 
nation must  be  offered  if  we  are  to  face  the 


24  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

problem  of  life  with  confidence  and  serenity, 
and  in  a  truly  religious  spirit. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  explanation  that  in- 
tellectual idealism  offers.  We  can  all  admit 
that  we  are  profoundly  influenced  by  study  and 
thought  of  purely  intellectual  ideals  without  at 
all  admitting  that  intellectual  idealism  answers 
the  great  problem  of  life.  In  the  first  place  we 
may  well  raise  the  question  whether  the  intel- 
lectual process  is  the  source  of  the  inspiration 
that  comes  from  study  and  thought ;  or  whether 
repose  and  thought  only  place  us  in  that  recep- 
tive condition  by  reason  of  which  we  are  sensi- 
tive to  the  action  of  the  spiritual  forces  that  are 
independent  of  the  natural  realm  and  are  in 
themselves  creative  and  dynamic.  We  will 
very  grossly  deceive  ourselves  if  we  think  that 
the  intellectual  process  is  the  originating  source 
of  inspiration. 

Again,  the  human  intellect  is  too  weak  and 
frail  to  be  trusted  as  the  source  of,  or  a  guide 
to,  the  ideal ;  the  human  will  is  too  weak  and 
changeable  to  maintain  the  necessary  attention 
and  continuity. 

Let  us  suppose  for  the  minute  that  there  is 
in  nature  a  universal  push  or  vitality  that  is 
working  out  a  resistless  progress  towards  the 
ideal,  and  in  so  far  as  we  can  understand  and 
conform  the  conduct  of  our  lives  to  this  ideal 
life-process  we  shall  be  carried  along  with  it. 


Possible  Solutions  of  the  Problem     25 

Do  you  not  see  what  a  burden  this  places  on 
the  mind,  if  our  advance  towards  the  ideal  is 
limited  to  what  the  mind  and  the  will  can 
understand  and  appropriate?  You  will  have 
your  opinion  of  the  ideal,  I  will  have  mine ; 
and  as  we  try  to  work  them  out,  we  may  be 
helping  each  other  or  we  may  be  hindering 
each  other.  As  the  years  pass  our  appreciation 
of  the  ideal  will  be  constantly  changing ;  there 
can  be  no  unity  of  ideal,  no  wholeness,  no  stand- 
ard. If  you  drop  your  ideal  in  order  to  help 
me  towards  mine,  you  will  be  disloyal  to  your 
own  ideal,  which  was  to  be  the  very  thing  that 
was  to  be  your  guide.  And  even  when  we 
think  most  surely  that  we  are  true  to  the  ideal, 
we  may  be  mistaken;  the  true  ideal  may  be 
something  quite  different ;  there  will  always  be 
present  the  tendency  to  make  the  ideal  coincide 
with  the  conventional.  No,  intellectual  ideal- 
ism is  a  beautiful  dream  that  awakens  enthusi- 
asm, especially  in  youth  and  in  good  health, 
but  in  the  end  it  is  limited,  transient  and  dis- 
couraging. 

The  problem  of  human  life  involves  the  pos- 
sible connection  of  the  soul  with  a  higher  order 
of  existence  and  intellectual  idealism  leaves  the 
solution  of  it  to  the  intellect  which  is  a  natural 
faculty  and  therefore  is  incompetent  to  judge 
the  problem.  In  fact  both  idealism  and  nat- 
uralism belittle  the  problem  and  try  to  gloss  it 


26  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

over.  It  is  not  until  one  entertains  the  spir- 
itual solution  that  the  real  importance  and 
fundamental  character  of  the  problem  is 
appreciated,  and  then  the  problem  assumes 
transcendant  importance.  It  is  not  until  we 
perceive  within  ourselves  the  beginnings  of  a 
higher  spiritual  life  that  we  recognize  how 
diametrically  opposed  are  the  physical  passions 
and  spiritual  aspirations.  It  is  not  until  we 
perceive  that  these  antagonisms  are  the  indica- 
tion of  a  spiritual  movement  for  which  we  are 
in  some  way  and  in  some  measure  responsible, 
and  whose  issue  conditions  not  only  the  few 
passing  years  of  the  natural  life  but  the  eternal 
life  of  the  spirit,  that  we  awake  to  the  supreme 
importance  of  a  correct  understanding  of  this 
supreme  problem  of  human  life.  On  the  one 
hand  is  a  world  of  nature  that  is  entirely  in- 
different to  our  behavior  or  our  sufferings,  that 
is  steadily  drawing  us  down  to  its  own  inexor- 
able level,  and  on  the  other  hand  the  realm  of 
the  spirit  beckoning  us  onward  and  upward  and 
offering  to  help  us  in  our  efforts  to  reach  the 
nobler  and  higher  life  of  the  spirit. 

If  we  are  honest  with  ourselves  we  must  ad- 
mit that  the  fight  going  on  within  us  between 
the  sensuous  and  the  spiritual  is  no  mere  rivalry 
of  ideals,  but  it  is  a  fight  to  the  finish  for  a 
higher  or  a  lower  life.  Naturalism  and  ideal- 
ism both  admit  that  the  individual  life  wiU 


Possible  Solutions  of  the  Problem     27 

probably  fail  and  certainly  die,  but  they  say  that 
the  race  life  will  advance  by  an  infinitesimal  in- 
crement. The  spiritual  solution  alone  holds  out 
the  hope  of  certain  victory  for  the  individual. 
The  spiritual  solution  asserts  that  there  are 
spiritual  forces,  creative  activities,  acting  within 
human  beings  which  if  appealed  to  can  so  far 
dominate  the  conflicting  elements  of  natural 
desires  that  the  life  process  will  be  raised  to  a 
higher  level ;  in  other  words  that  it  is  possible 
for  a  human  being  with  the  aid  of  the  benefi- 
cent spiritual  forces  of  the  higher  realm  to 
transcend  the  world  of  time  and  matter,  and  to 
rise  into  and  become  a  part  of  the  higher 
spiritual  realm. 

If  a  man  in  his  heart  of  hearts  believes  that 
the  naturalistic  explanation  is  the  most  prob- 
able, he  cannot  help  but  conform  the  conduct 
of  his  life  to  natural  laws  to  a  greater  or  less 
degree.  The  most  characteristic  of  all  natural 
laws  is  the  law  of  self-assertion  and  self-preser- 
vation. It  forever  prompts  one  to  labor,  at  first 
to  gratify  hunger  and  to  ward  off  pain  and 
death  ;  then  it  prompts  to  the  gratification  by 
indulgence  of  all  the  natural  appetites  and  pas- 
sions ;  and  then  on  and  on  in  the  accumulation 
of  wealth  and  position  by  reason  of  which  one 
can  the  more  easily  gratify  all  these  natural 
desires. 

Yery  few  people  accept  the  naturalistic  ex- 


28  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

planation  as  the  exclusive  basis  of  their  religious 
faith,  but  very,  very  many  people  let  it  color 
and  practically  control  their  conduct  for  six 
days  in  the  week  and  then  some.  It  is  true 
that  in  times  of  sorrow,  or  in  rare  moments  of 
contemplative  thought,  they  have  their  doubts 
as  to  whether  naturalism  is  adequate,  but  so 
long  as  they  dally  with  the  thought  that 
natural  law  is  supreme,  they  will  unconsciously 
tend  to  conform  their  life  to  its  demands. 
When  we  let  the  temptations  of  physical 
pleasure  and  indulgence  possess  us  we  are  wor- 
shipping at  the  shrine  of  naturalism,  even  if 
our  names  are  written  on  the  rolls  of  the  most 
orthodox  church  in  town.  When  a  woman  in 
order  to  make  herself  attractive  bedecks  herself 
in  costly  apparel,  forgetful  of  the  needs  of 
her  family,  or  her  own  soul  life,  forgetful  of 
sweat  shops  and  child  labor  and  unpaid  sewing 
women ;  when  a  man  pushes  his  business  suc- 
cess at  the  expense  of  under-paid  labor,  ruined 
competitors,  deceived  customers ;  when  ambi- 
tious kings  and  emperors  plunge  their  nations 
into  a  heartless  war  of  aggression,  regardless  of 
starving,  wounded,  dying  men,  women  and 
children,  they  are  but  following  the  natural 
jungle  law  of  tooth  and  nail  and  are  nature 
worshippers  pure  and  simple. 

The  natural  type  of  life  is  ambitious,  ener- 
getic, selfish  and  unsympathetic,  except  with 


Possible  Solutions  of  the  Problem     29 

one's  family  or  immediate  friends.  It  makes  our 
civilization  materialistic,  efficient,  restless,  ex- 
travagant, harsh  and  cruel,  and  grossly  unequal 
in  the  distribution  of  its  benefits. 

This  is  no  suitable  basis  for  a  religion,  for  the 
very  essential  of  a  religious  faith  is  a  sense  of 
dependence  on  an  outside  power  that  independ- 
ently of  ourselves  is  making  for  righteousness, 
and  religion  is  the  intuitive  response  to  that 
power  in  an  effort  to  propitiate  it  and  to  ap- 
proach towards  it. 

Neither  is  the  idealistic  explanation  of  the 
problem  of  human  life  a  satisfactory  basis  for 
a  religious  faith.  It  leaves  too  much  to  the  in- 
dividual fancy  and  inclination ;  it  is  too  depend- 
ent on  youth  and  health  and  prosperity;  it 
deals  too  much  with  the  trivialities  of  dress  and 
decorum  ;  and  ignores  the  more  important  things 
of  moral  conduct  and  spiritual  discipline.  It 
imposes  no  disagreeable  duties  and  quickly 
dissipates  itself  in  faultfinding  egotism.  In- 
tellectual idealism  is  at  its  best  in  youth  and 
vigor,  but  sooner  or  later  will  come  the  tired 
days,  the  discouragement  of  opposing  interests 
and  failing  health  ;  then  energy  and  action  will 
lag,  one  will  inevitably  begin  to  appropriate 
and  enjoy,  and  idealism  will  have  been  forgotten 
or  have  lapsed  into  mere  culture  and  enjoyment. 

In  intellectual  idealism  there  is  no  power 
making  for  righteousness,  or  at  most  if  there 


30  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

be  a  current  in  the  cosmic  process  that  is  tend- 
ing towards  the  ideal,  it  is  doing  so  entirely  in- 
dependent of  humanity  and  its  interests.  Even 
if  idealism  recognizes  a  beneficent  life  process, 
it  removes  it  so  far  behind  a  pitiless  determinism 
that  there  can  be  little  hope  of  appeal  to  it  as  a 
life  motive.  The  only  help  such  a  belief  can  be 
to  a  man  is  the  very  negative  help  that  may  be 
his  to  the  extent  that  he  can  intellectually  dis- 
cern its  trend  and  succeed  in  forcing  his  life  to 
coincide  with  it ;  ;and  even  then  all  the  reward 
that  can  be  his  will  be  the  consciousness  that 
through  his  efforts  the  race  life  has  been  lifted 
an  infinitesimal  increment  nearer  the  ideal. 
He  may  have  the  satisfaction  of  thinking  that 
he  is  living  in  harmony  with  the  ideal,  but 
there  can  be  no  more  personal  and  satisfying 
reward,  no  fellowship,  no  worship. 

On  the  other  hand  the  spiritual  explanation 
by  supplying  a  faith  in  two  levels  of  conscious 
existence,  a  natural  and  a  spiritual,  and  over  all 
a  Sovereign  God  who  is  infinite,  holy  and  lov- 
ing, who  is,  and  who  ever  has  been,  working  out 
a  moral  purpose  that  most  intimately  concerns 
the  individual  happiness  and  welfare,  calls  into 
play  the  strongest  activities  of  a  man's  nature, 
and  tends  to  make  the  quest  of  the  spiritual  life 
the  most  energetic  and  worth  while  of  all  life's 
adventures.  According  to  the  spiritual  faith, 
the  continuance  of  man's  enthusiasm  and  effort 


Possible  Solutions  of  the  Problem     31 

is  not  wholly  dependent  on  his  own  strength  of 
body  or  mentality,  but  is  supplied  and  is  reen- 
forced  by  all  the  universal  forces  of  the  Spiritual 
Kealm  operating  within  him  and  ever  cooper- 
ating with  his  ever  clearing  ideals  of  spiritual 
faith,  duty  and  service,  for  his  advancement  into 
the  higher  realm  of  the  spirit. 

It  is  the  glory  of  the  spiritual  solution  of  the 
problem  of  human  life  that  it  provides  an  out- 
side aid  that  is  of  itself  working  for  the  redemp- 
tion and  advancement  of  humanity.  The  spir- 
itual solution  not  only  lifts  up  a  vision  of  a 
higher  life  for  the  soul,  with  all  its  promises  of 
ineffable  harmonies,  its  fellowships  of  perfect 
affinity,  its  intimacies  of  perfect  knowledge,  but 
it  also  energizes  the  advance  into  those  spiritual 
relations.  ,  So  long  as  one  is  dependent  for 
courage  and  hope  for  participation  in  a  higher 
or  more  ideal  life  solely  on  his  own  powers  of 
discernment,  his  own  self-control,  his  own  per- 
sistence of  effort,  and  his  own  strength,  so  long 
has  one  reason  for  discouragement,  and  the 
horrors  of  ultimate  failure  will  ever  haunt  his 
steps ;  but  if  the  forces  of  the  higher  spiritual 
life  are  coordinating  for  his  advancement  then 
there  is  assurance  that  his  spiritual  aspirations 
are  well  grounded  and  will  ultimately  be  vic- 
torious over  the  lower  animal  desires  of  the 
natural  life.  His  confidence  and  courage  are 
based  not  on  his  own  failing  strength,  but  on 


32  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

the  beneficent  and  transcendent  forces  of  the 
Spiritual  Kealm. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  must  be  clear  to 
all  that  when  one  bases  the  conduct  of  his  life 
strictly  on  a  naturalistic  basis,  that  it  will  be, 
nay  must  be,  selfish,  worldly  wise,  exciting, 
and  in  the  end,  a  disheartening  failure.  If  one 
honestly  bases  the  conduct  of  his  life  on  an 
intellectual  ideal  there  will  be  the  temporary 
enthusiasm,  the  noble  effort  of  youth,  but  it 
will  almost  certainly  be  followed  by  more 
or  less  conformity  to  convention,  by  a  selfish 
withdrawal  into  a  life  of  culture,  by  increasing 
narrowness  and  egotism,  and  finally  by  a  sense 
of  defeat  and  discouragement. 

On  the  contrary  those  that  build  on  a  spir- 
itual foundation  have  good  ground  for  confi- 
dence that  their  labor  will  not  be  in  vain 
because  it  rests  "  in  the  Lord."  The  experiences 
of  life  will  more  and  more  confirm  their  faith 
that  above  all  and  ahead  of  all  is  a  higher  life 
of  the  spirit,  whose  glory  the  mind  of  man  has 
never  yet  measured  and  whose  upward  prog- 
ress appears  to  have  no  end.  Those  who  have 
trusted  in  their  natural  powers,  or  in  the  chang- 
ing ideals  of  their  poor  minds,  as  the  end  of  life 
draws  near,  will  see  a  gross  darkness  shutting 
down  on  a  life  of  disappointment  and  failure ; 
but  to  him  who  has  trusted  in  a  spiritual  over- 
world,  and  who  has  sought  to  live  a  life  of 


Possible  Solutions  of  the  Problem     33 

service  according  to  the  spiritual  law  of  love, 
and  who  has  had  faith  in  the  redeeming  power 
of  the  Sovereign  God  of  this  spiritual  over- 
world  of  love,  the  end  of  the  earthly  life  will 
come  as  a  setting  sun,  that  hints  not  of  failure 
and  oblivion,  but  that  promises  the  glorious 
coming  of  a  new  and  a  better  day. 

In  the  next  sermon  I  shall  try  to  show  how 
the  teachings  of  Jesus  established  once  and  for 
all  time  this  spiritual  solution  of  the  problem  of 
human  life.  I  will  show  that  the  proclamation 
of  the  Good  News  of  a  Spiritual  Kealm  was  the 
chief  concern  of  Jesus  during  all  his  earthly 
ministry,  and  by  his  dying  commission  was  be- 
queathed to  all  his  disciples.  Nothing  else 
should  take  precedence  of  it,  neither  fellowship, 
nor  social  service,  nor  ethical  teaching.  The 
paramount  duty  of  the  Christian  Church  is  to 
proclaim  the  evangelistic  message  of  the  Mas- 
ter ;  which  is  :  the  assertion  of  the  reality  of  a 
Spiritual  Kealm,  and  the  way  through  faith 
and  trust  and  love  into  its  timeless  life. 


II 


Jesus*  Solution  of  the  Problem  of 
Human  Life 


{Nicodemus)  "  Tou  speak  of  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
what  do  you  mean  by  it?^'  Jesus  replied:  **  The  King- 
dom of  Godf  or  the  Spiritual  Realm,  is  an  independent  or- 
der of  reality  that  is  higher  than  the  natural  order,  and 
cannot  be  fully  understood  except  by  one  who  is  born  from 
above y  Nicodemus  said:  **  How  can  a  man  be  born 
when  he  is  old  ?  Can  he  enter  the  second  time  into  his 
mother'' s  womb  and  be  born?"  Jesus  answered:  "  It  is 
not  a  matter  of  physical  birth  ;  but  nevertheless  I  repeat 
what  I  said,  except  one  be  born  of  Spiritual  Vitality  he  can- 
not advance  into  the  Spiritual  Realm,  That  which  is 
born  of  the  natural  flesh  is  flesh  of  course  ;  but  that  which 
is  born  of  Spiritual  Vitality  is  Spirit'* — "  The  Good 
News  of  a  Spiritual  Realm." 

"  But  you  are  not  in  the  flesh,  but  in  the  Spirit,  if  so 
be  that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwell  in  you.  .  .  .  But 
if  the  Spirit  of  Him  that  raised  up  Jesus  from  the  dead 
dwell  in  you.  He  that  raised  up  Christ  from  the  dead  shall 
also  quicken  your  mortal  bodies  by  his  Spirit  that  dwelleth 
in  you''' — Paul  of  Tarsus. 

"  For  the  first  time  in  history  there  appeared  on  earth 
One  who  absolutely  trusted  the  Unseen,  who  had  utter 
confidence  that  Love  was  at  the  heart  of  all  things,  utter 
confidence  also  in  the  Absolute  Power  of  that  Absolute  Love 
and  in  the  liberty  of  that  Love  to  help  Him'' — Principal 
D.  S.  Cairns. 


II 


Jesus'  Solution  of  the  Problem  of 
Human  Life 

JESUS  approached  the  problem  of  Human 
Life  from  the  Jewish  point  of  view.  To 
the  Jews  three  things  appeared  to  be  of 
prime  importance :  the  infinite  personality  and 
authority  of  Jehovah,  the  duties  in  the  line  of 
worship  and  daily  living  that  human  beings 
owed  to  this  Sovereign  Jehovah,  and  third,  the 
promised  coming  of  the  Messiah  to  establish  a 
Messianic  Kingdom. 

Jesus  accepted  in  a  general  way  these  com- 
mon Jewish  religious  ideas  and  made  them  the 
basis  of  his  system  of  thought,  but  he  so  far 
transformed  them  by  correcting  misapprehen- 
sions, and  by  adding  new  depths  of  meaning 
that  to  the  Jews  his  teachings  seemed  actually 
antagonistic. 

To  the  common  conception  of  Jehovah  as 
the  creator  and  ruler  of  a  physical  universe, 
he  added  a  revelation  that  showed  him  to  be 
the  beneficent  and  paternal  sovereign  of  a 
higher  realm  of  the  spirit  that  infinitely  tran- 
37 


38  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

scended  the  natural  universe ;  he  taught  them 
that  if  they  were  ever  to  know  God  aright 
they  must  think  of  him,  not  so  much  as  Je- 
hovah the  Almighty,  as  the  Heavenly  Father 
in  a  Kingdom  of  Love. 

The  old  Jewish  conceptions  of  the  relations 
that  existed  between  humanity  and  God  and 
the  duties  that  man  owed  to  God  had  become 
crystallized  into  elaborate  codes  of  ceremonial 
law  and  moral  precepts.  Jesus  brushed  these 
all  aside  and  taught  that  all  that  was  essential 
in  the  Law  and  the  Prophets  was  summed  up 
in  the  two  commandments :  "  Thou  shalt  love 
the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with 
all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  strength,  and  with 
all  thy  mind ;  and  thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself." 

But  by  far  the  most  important  contribution 
that  Jesus  made  to  the  current  religious  ideas 
of  the  Jews  was  his  teaching  as  to  the  real  na- 
ture of  the  Messianic  Kingdom.  He  did  not 
call  it  the  Messianic  Kingdom,  he  called  it  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  or  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven ; 
and  the  greatest  part  of  his  ministry  was  de- 
voted to  explaining  what  it  was,  and  how  hu- 
manity could  enter  into  it,  and  live  in  the 
vitality  of  it. 

If  we  are  to  understand  what  Jesus  thought 
about  the  Problem  of  Human  Life  we  must 
study  his  teachings  about  all  of  these  things, 


Jesus^  Solution  of  the  Problem        39 

but  it  is  especially  important  that  we  under- 
stand his  teachings  about  the  Kingdom  of 
God,  for  that  was  the  most  important  thing 
that  he  had  to  teach  and  to  reveal,  and  it  lies 
at  the  basis  of  all  the  rest.  He  refers  to  the 
Kingdom  hundreds  of  different  times ;  in  fact, 
he  refers  to  it  more  than  to  all  other  subjects 
put  together. 

Even  the  Prophets  of  old,  who  had  foretold 
his  coming,  made  the  Kingdom  the  outstand- 
ing feature  of  their  prophecies,  and  the  angelic 
presence  in  the  vision  of  the  annunciation  told 
Mary:  "The  Lord  God  shall  give  unto  him 
the  throne  of  his  father  David;  and  he  shall 
reign  over  the  house  of  Jacob  forever ;  and  of 
his  Kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end." 

Matthew,  Mark,  Luke  and  John  all  refer  to 
the  mission  of  Jesus,  using  different  expressions 
to  be  sure,  but  all  saying  the  same  thing :  "  He 
came  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom." 

Jesus  himself  began  his  preaching  ministry 
by  proclaiming  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  was 
at  hand.  In  the  very  first  interview  of  which 
we  have  any  record,  when  Nicodemus  came  to 
Jesus  by  night,  the  conversation  opens  by 
Nicodemus'  asking  Jesus  what  he  means  by 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  When  Jesus  sent  out 
the  twelve  and  the  seventy,  he  told  them  that 
they  were  to  preach  everywhere  the  Gospel  of 
the  Kingdom.     And  after  his  resurrection  when 


40  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

the  time  came  to  give  his  great  and  final  com- 
mission he  told  his  disciples,  "  Go  into  all  the 
world  and  preach  the  Gospel,"  the  Good  News 
of  the  Kingdom. 

His  constant  references  to  the  Kingdom  in 
his  teachings  resulted  in  people  calling  him 
the  King  of  the  Jews,  and  when  Pilate  began 
to  examine  him,  his  first  question  was,  *'Are 
you  the  King  of  the  Jews  ?  "  and  the  last  thing 
that  caught  the  eyes  of  the  multitude  at  the 
crucifixion  was  the  sign  high  above  that  read, 
"  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  King  of  the  Jews." 

Jesus  certainly  felt  it  to  be  his  supreme  mis- 
sion in  life  to  reveal  and  to  proclaim  the  Good 
News  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  we  shall 
make  no  mistake  if  we  study  carefully  what 
Jesus  said  about  it. 

In  the  beginning  let  us  say  that  probably  no 
other  teaching  of  Jesus  has  been  so  persistently 
misunderstood  as  his  teaching  concerning  the 
nature  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  what  is 
more,  it  is  still  being  misunderstood  by  many 
of  the  foremost  preachers  and  teachers  of  Chris- 
tianity. As  a  preliminary  to  considering  what 
he  did  mean,  let  us  first  review  some  of  the 
erroneous  meanings  that  have  been  held. 

The  misunderstanding  began  even  before  the 
birth  of  Jesus.  The  Prophets  of  old  had  fore- 
told the  coming  of  the  Messiah,  who  was  to  be 
the  descendant  of  David,  who  should  receive 


Jesus'  Solution  of  the  Problem       41 

the  Kingdom  of  his  father  David,  and  of  his 
sway  there  should  be  no  end.  The  Jews,  be- 
cause of  their  political  troubles  and  of  the  vicis- 
situdes of  their  national  life  had  construed  this 
to  mean  that  when  the  Messiah  came  that  he 
would  restore  their  national  standing  and  lib- 
erties, and  give  them  their  rightful  place  before 
the  nations  as  the  chosen  people  of  God,  to 
whom  others  would  turn  for  religious  light  and 
leadership.  This  erroneous  expectation  was  so 
deeply  rooted  in  their  national  consciousness 
that  they  came  to  value  their  idea  of  the  Mes- 
sianic Kingdom  more  than  they  valued  the 
personality  of  the  Messiah ;  and  when  it  came 
to  a  choice  of  either  giving  up  their  mistaken 
notion  of  the  Messianic  Kingdom,  or  of  giving 
up  the  Messiah,  they  chose  to  crucify  the  Lord 
and  cried  out  in  tumult,  "  His  blood  be  on  us 
and  on  our  children." 

But  Jesus'  teaching  concerning  the  Kingdom 
was  not  only  misunderstood  by  his  enemies ;  it 
was  misunderstood  by  his  disciples  and  friends. 
In  spite  of  his  reiterated  teachings  his  dis- 
ciples continued  to  think  that  he  must  mean 
by  "the  Kingdom"  a  world  kingdom  under 
Messianic  control.  On  his  way  to  Jerusalem 
for  his  final  rejection  and  crucifixion  two  of 
his  disciples  asked  for  places  of  honor  when 
he  should  come  into  his  kingdom ;  when  the 
crowd  thought  that  he  was  about  to  assume 


42  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

his  Messianic  throne  they  thronged  about  him 
and  gave  him  imperial  welcome  to  the  city ;  in 
the  final  hour  before  the  ascension,  the  disciples 
asked  him,  *'  Will  you  at  this  time  restore  the 
Kingdom  to  Israel?"  and  for  years  after,  his 
disciples  looked  for  his  second  coming  to  estab- 
lish his  world  kingdom. 

After  his  ascension  the  true  spiritual  mean- 
ing of  his  Kingdom  began  to  dawn  on  the 
minds  of  a  few  of  his  disciples,  but  only  a  few. 
The  disciple  John,  and  later  John  the  Pres- 
byter, who  wrote  the  Epistles  of  John,  began 
to  understand,  and  then  Paul  with  his  master 
mind  entered  still  deeper  into  the  Master's 
meaning.  But  when  Paul  became  engrossed  in 
his  life-work  of  defending  Christianity  against 
Judaism  and  against  Greek  philosophy,  and 
when  he  became  more  than  busy  meeting  the 
emergencies  and  the  difficulties  incident  to  es- 
tablishing a  new  church  organization,  he  let 
doctrine  and  order  monopolize  his  thought  to 
such  an  extent  that  his  system  of  thought  was 
turned  from  its  simple  emphasis  on  the  higher 
spiritual  life  to  an  elaboration  of  dogma  and 
ecclesiastical  polity. 

In  the  years  and  centuries  that  followed,  the 
evolution  of  church  and  doctrine  showed  all 
too  plainly  that  the  leaders  of  the  Christian 
Church  had  come  to  understand  Jesus'  words 
in  regard   to  the  Kingdom  of  God  to  mean 


Jesus'  Solution  of  the  Problem        43 

the  organized  Church,  to  whose  headship  Jesus 
would  return  in  a  visible  second  coming.  In 
the  course  of  time  the  Pope,  the  Yicar  of  Christ, 
claimed  imperial  honor  and  authority  as  the 
head  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  To 
their  minds  the  organization  of  believers  con- 
stituted the  kingdom. 

In  time  the  inadequacy  of  this  conception 
began  to  be  felt,  and  under  the  leadership  of 
"Wyclif,  Huss,  Luther,  and  other  Protestant 
leaders  another  conception  asserted  itself.  Hav- 
ing substituted  the  authority  of  the  Bible  for 
the  authority  of  the  Pope,  they  no  longer  felt 
that  the  organized  Church  was  the  kingdom, 
but  held  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth 
was  the  whole  body  of  believers  in  the  true 
doctrine  as  revealed  in  the  Bible.  This  has 
gone  on  until  our  own  day  when  the  emphasis 
has  very  largely  passed  from  creeds  and  doc- 
trines to  the  spirit  of  life,  and  with  this  change 
the  Kingdom  of  God  has  come  to  mean  com- 
monly the  invisible  order  of  society  upon  earth 
that  is  moved  by  Christian  motives  or  the  spirit 
of  Christ,  i.  6.,  it  is  generally  supposed  to  be 
that  ideal  state  of  society  where  love  reigns 
and  towards  which  the  evolution  of  society  is 
tending. 

All  of  these  conceptions  are  erroneous  and 
entirely  misunderstand  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
The  thing  to  be  noted  in  all  these  conceptions 


44  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

of  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  the  presence  of  one 
common  element  of  error ;  they  all  make  the 
Kingdom  of  God  to  consist  of  some  state  of 
society  here  on  earth  as  distinct  from  heaven, 
or  the  Spiritual  Kealm. 

D.  S.  Cairn  in  a  recent  book  writes  f  "  The 
Kingdom  of  God  is  a  new  spiritual  society  ; " 
"  a  new  order  of  humanity ;  "  "  a  great  spiritual 
structure  to  be  built  up  as  men  have  built  up  a 
civilization  ;  "  "a  nascent  commonwealth  of  re- 
deemed humanity."  These  expressions  are 
quite  typical  of  many  other  modern  writers. 
Rauschenbusch  writes :  "  The  Kingdom  of  God 
is  still  a  collective  conception,  involving  the 
whole  life  of  man.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  saving 
human  atoms,  but  of  saving  the  social  organism, 
.  .  .  of  transforming  the  life  on  earth  into 
the  harmony  of  heaven."  Peabody  writes: 
"  The  Kingdom  of  God  ...  It  was  to  be  a 
social  regeneration."  Dr.  Lyman  says,  "  It  is 
the  working  out  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on 
earth."  By  saying  this  he  makes  the  meaning 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth  the  same  as  a 
state  of  society  on  earth  in  which  God's  will  is 
done.  This  is  the  mistake.  The  Kingdom  of 
God  is  the  Spiritual  Realm,  and  it  is  not  any  state 
of  society  upon  earth,  however  ideal  it  may  be. 
It  is  true  that  the  Christian  purpose  is  not  less 
than  the  getting  of  God's  will  done  upon  earth, 
but  it  is  also  a  great  deal  more ;  namely,  it  is  so 


Jesus'  Solution  of  the  Problem       45 

to  live  that  the  soul  may  transcend  this  natural 
life  and  advance  into  the  Spiritual  Eealm.  In 
order  to  do  this  one  must  live  a  life  that  is  con- 
trolled by  Christ's  spirit  of  love,  and  one  result 
of  such  a  love-controlled  life  will  be  the  getting 
of  God's  will  done  among  men,  so  that  they 
and  every  one  may  enjoy  a  richer  and  a  more 
abundant  life  and  so  that  there  may  be  a  more 
favorable  environment  for  living  such  a  love- 
controlled  life.  But  the  resulting  state  of 
society  will  not  be  the  Kingdom  of  God  upon 
earth,  for  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  the  Spiritual 
Kealm.  I  wish  that  there  might  be  8ome  ac- 
ceptable term  agreed  upon  for  this  ideal  state 
of  earthly  society,  so  that  there  might  not  be 
this  continuing  confusion  of  thought  by  using 
the  same  term,  Kingdom  of  God,  for  both  an 
ideal  state  of  society  and  for  the  Spiritual 
Kealm. 

Jesus'  meaning  seems  clear  enough  if  we  are 
able  to  rid  ourselves  of  these  old  material  con- 
ceptions. He  says  distinctly  that  his  Kingdom 
is  not  of  this  world  and  that  it  can  only  be  ap- 
prehended within  a  man.  This  can  mean  only 
one  thing;  it  can  only  mean  that  there  is  a 
higher  order  of  reality  than  the  familiar 
physical  world  about  us  that  we  know  by  sense 
perception,  an  order  that  we  can  "sense"  and 
know  only  by  the  inner  consciousness. 

Jesus  says  distinctly  :  "  .    .    .    my  kingdom 


46  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

is  not  of  this  world.  If  it  were  my  men  would 
fight  for  me  and  I  would  not  be  delivered  to 
the  Jews.  No,  my  kingdom  is  independent  of 
this  natural  order.  ...  I  have  come  into 
this  world  for  this  purpose  and  for  this  purpose 
only,  to  bear  witness  of  the  only  kingdom  of 
true  reality."  * 

According  to  Jesus  the  Spiritual  Kealm  is 
independent  of  temporal  and  spatial  considera- 
tions, but  we  can  truly  say,  nevertheless,  it  is 
here  and  now  and  can  be  apprehended  within 
by  the  spiritual  faculties.  The  thought  of  this 
is  so  new  and  strange  that  it  is  no  wonder  that 
Nicodemus  exclaimed :  "  How  can  this  be  pos- 
sible!" Jesus  admitted  to  him  the  difficulty 
of  comprehending  its  full  meaning,  he  admitted 
that  it  was  impossible  for  a  human  being,  who 
belongs  to  a  lower  order,  to  discover  the  secrets 
of  a  higher  order,  but  claimed  for  himself  the 
right  to  testify  to  it  inasmuch  as  he  had  come 
down  from  the  higher  Spiritual  Kealm  ;  and  he 
insisted  that  what  he  taught  about  the  King- 
dom of  God  was  true. 

Even  his  favorite  disciples  failed  to  under- 
stand his  meaning  and  drew  from  Jesus  more 
than  once  a  weary  exclamation ;  "  Are  you  too 
without  penetration  ?  " 

It  is  very  difficult  for  us  in  this  scientific  age 
when  we  so  commonly  think  that  everything 

»  "  The  Good  News  of  a  Spiritual  Realm,"  p.  254. 


Jesus'  Solution  of  the  Problem       47 

that  is  real  must  exist  in  a  universe  of  time  and 
space,  and  must  be  subject  to  cause  and  effect, 
and  that  we  can  measure  and  weigh,  to  com- 
prehend what  Jesus  means  by  the  independent 
reality  of  a  Spiritual  Eealm. 

Even  Saint  Augustine,  who  is  counted  one 
of  the  world's  greatest  thinkers,  had  extreme 
difficulty  in  forming  a  conception  of  spiritual 
existence  and  he  looked  upon  this  inability  as 
the  sole  cause  of  his  earlier  errors  of  thought. 
In  his  "  Confessions  "  he  refers  to  it  frequently. 
He  says :  "  Of  what  was  meant  by  a  spiritual 
substance  I  could  not  (at  first)  form  even  a 
faint  and  shadowy  notion."  "  So  slow  of  heart 
was  I  .  .  .  that  whatsoever  was  not  ex- 
tended in  space  or  diffused  through  it,  I  sup- 
posed to  have  no  existence  at  all." 

While  we  admit  the  difficulty  of  thinking  in 
spiritual  terms,  to  one  who  is  unaccustomed  to 
it,  the  age-long  history  of  religion  and  mysticism 
proves  conclusively  that  devout  effort  makes  it 
possible.  The  conception  of  a  Spiritual  Eealm 
can  be  made  to  be  not  only  reasonable,  but  the 
only  and  necessary  explanation  of  the  many 
and  perplexing  problems  of  human  life. 
Dr.  Eudolf  Eucken,  the  ablest  thinker  of  to- 
day, uses  the  line  of  philosophic  necessity  to 
prove  its  reality;  Dr.  Keyser  in  his  book, 
"  Science  and  Eeligion,"  uses  the  mathematical 
line  of  reasoning  based  on  the  well-known  proc- 


48  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

ess  of  limits ;  still  another  scholar  comes  to 
the  same  conclusion  by  following  an  accepted 
line  of  biological  reasoning. 

But  I  think  that  for  most  of  us  Jesus'  mean- 
ing will  be  sufl&ciently  clear  if  we  think  about 
it  in  connection  with  some  of  the  different  lev- 
els of  life  that  we  see  in  nature  about  us.  We 
see  inorganic  material  and  crystalline  material ; 
we  see  crystalline  material  and  vegetable  life ; 
we  see  vegetable  life  and  animal  life ;  we  see 
animal  life  and  our  own  intellectual  life.  We 
can  easily  understand  all  of  these  to  be  differ- 
ent levels  of  life  acting  within  the  same  physical 
realm.  But  when  we  come  to  think  of  the  two 
separate  life  processes,  the  physical  and  the 
spiritual,  that  are  going  on  within  us,  they  can- 
not be  so  easily  explained.  We  can  understand 
physical  growth  to  be  a  natural  process,  but  we 
cannot  so  understand  spiritual  growth. 

The  spiritual  life  demands  a  different  kind  of 
an  environment.  As  long  as  we  try  to  crowd 
all  of  the  ethical  and  moral  and  spiritual  hap- 
penings into  the  same  realm  that  suffices  for 
the  explanations  of  physical  happenings  there 
is  endless  confusion  of  thoughts  and  misunder- 
standing; but  when  we  explain  physical  phe- 
nomena by  physical  laws  operating  in  a  ma- 
terial universe,  and  explain  the  phenomena  that 
have  to  do  with  the  spiritual  forces  of  love, 
faith,  duty  where  they  belong  in  an  independ- 


Jesus'  Solution  of  the  Problem       49 

ent  and  higher  domain  of  the  spirit,  then  we 
simplify  and  make  intelligible  the  teachings  of 
Jesus. 

Jesus  gives  comparatively  little  time  to  as- 
serting the  existence  of  the  Spiritual  Kealm,  but 
devotes  a  great  deal  of  time  and  care  in  conver- 
sation w^ith  his  disciples,  in  answering  the  ques- 
tions of  his  enemies,  and  in  talks  with  those  he 
meets  by  the  way,  to  making  clear  the*  nature 
of  the  Kingdom  and  their  relation  to  it. 

He  seems  to  avoid  abstract  and  metaphysical 
terms  but  delights  in  figures  of  speech  and  in 
parables.  He  says  over  and  over  again  :  "  The 
ELingdom  of  Heaven  is  like  unto,"  and  then  he 
likens  it  to  seed,  to  yeast,  to  hid  treasure,  to 
wages,  reward,  a  fishing  net,  a  shepherd's  care, 
paternal  lOve,  and  many  other  different  figures, 
but  all  of  them  point  to  an  overworld  of  love 
that  is  hovering  just  within  reach  of  humanity. 

Both  Jesus  and  John  the  Baptist  spoke  of 
"  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom,"  and  of  the  King- 
dom as  "  drawing  near."  In  the  prayer  which 
Jesus  taught  his  disciples  to  pray,  he  said: 
''  Thy  Kingdom  come."  This  thought  of  the 
Kingdom  drawing  near  has  meant  to  many  that 
Jesus  had  in  mind  a  visible  second  coming  when 
he  would  assume  the  Kingship  of  his  disciples 
in  a  Messianic  reign.  This  was  especially  true 
during  the  first  millennium.  In  later  years 
and  especially  among  the  intellectual  idealists 


^O  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

of  our  own  day,  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom 
means  the  gradual  increase  of  the  Christ  spirit 
in  human  society,  a  gradual  approach  towards 
that  ideal  state  of  human  society  in  which 
God's  will  will  be  done  among  men. 

It  seems  to  me  that  this  is  not  at  all  what 
Jesus  had  in  mind  when  he  taught  men  to 
pray :  "  Thy  Kingdom  come."  It  seems  to  be 
much  more  in  accord  with  his  other  teachings 
which  are  uniformly  spiritual  to  understand  the 
words  to  mean  that  the  Spiritual  Kealm  being 
non-spatial  and  non-temporal  is  all  about  us  all 
of  the  time  as  a  kind  of  overworld  of  love,  and 
yet  in  a  sense  it  is  a  long  way  off  to  those  whose 
faculties  for  apprehending  it  are  dull  and  use- 
less. They  have  eyes  to  see  and  see  not ;  they 
have  ears  to  hear  and  hear  not ;  and  their  hearts 
are  too  heavy  to  understand.  But  as  human 
beings  begin  to  take  note  of  spiritual  things, 
there  awakens  in  the  heart  a  desire  to  under- 
stand, the  spiritual  faculties  are  quickened,  and 
in  a  true  sense  the  Spiritual  Eealm  draws  near 
to  them.  It  is  when  we  hunger  and  thirst  for 
righteousness,  for  love  and  sympathy,  and  pray 
in  spirit  and  in  truth,  "  Thy  Kingdom  come," 
that  the  shadows  and  the  barriers  that  remove 
the  Spiritual  Realm  far  from  us  dissolve  away 
and  we  realize  that  the  Kingdom  is  drawing 
near  within  us.  And  so  to  this  materialistic 
world  with  all  its  selfish,  ambitious  people  and 


Jesus'  Solution  of  the  Problem        51 

nations,  the  Kingdom  seems  far,  far  away ;  but 
as  peoples  and  nations  come  to  heed  the  mes- 
sages of  Jesus  and  begin  to  cherish  the  Love 
Idea,  then  does  the  Kingdom  of  God,  the  Spir- 
itual Eealm,  draw  near. 

It  will  not  come  as  we  put  on  a  garment,  by 
gradually  acquiring  intellectual  culture ;  it  will 
not  come  as  society  gradually  develops  under 
an  increasing  ethical  organization  and  control. 
No,  not  that ;  when  it  comes  it  will  come  si- 
lently to  individuals,  as  one  by  one  they  open 
their  hearts,  and  as  the  spiritual  faculties  are 
quickened,  to  welcome  and  to  receive  it. 

We  cannot  test  the  nearness  of  the  Spiritual 
Kealm  by  statistics  and  observations,  but  nev- 
ertheless we  can  be  conscious  of  it,  we  can  in  a 
true  sense  taste  and  see  that  God  is  very  near. 
We  can  yield  ourselves  to  spiritual  influences ; 
we  can  launch  out  into  the  depths  of  his  provi- 
dential care ;  we  can  love  and  trust  God  with 
all  our  mind  and  heart  and  strength,  and  we 
can  love  our  neighbors ;  we  can  loyally  keep 
his  commandments  and  try  to  have  our  lives 
conform  to  the  spiritual  law  of  love ;  and  then 
he  has  promised  us,  we  shall  know. 

The  second  thing  for  us  to  notice  is  this: 
Jesus  asserted  that  the  spiritual  law  of  love  was 
stronger  than  any  natural  law,  and  he  proved 
it  by  doing  in  a  spirit  of  love  greater  works 
than  any  man  had  ever  done  before.    He  healed 


3*2  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

the  sick,  he  cured  the  lame,  opened  the  eyes  of 
the  blind,  restored  the  insane  and  even  raised 
the  dead  to  life  again.  He  satisfied  the  hunger 
of  thousands  with  a  few  loaves  of  bread ;  he 
restrained  the  violence  of  angry  men  ;  and  even 
the  winds  and  the  waves  obeyed  him.  Yet 
with  all  his  supernatural  power  he  was  will- 
ing to  suffer  the  death  of  his  own  body  on  the 
cross,  in  order  that  he  might  show  how  possible 
it  was  for  love  to  triumph  over  death ;  and  then 
by  repeated  appearances  after  the  death  of  the 
body  he  proved  beyond  question,  to  the  heart 
of  faith,  the  reality  of  the  spiritual  life  here 
and  now  and  its  continuance  after  the  death  of 
the  body. 

He  asserted  that  he  did  not  do  these  things 
in  his  own  natural  strength,  but  that  he  did 
them  in  the  power  that  was  given  him  from 
God  who  was  Sovereign  of  the  Spiritual  Eealm 
and  who  had  sent  him  to  do  these  very  things. 
Then  he  asserted  that  any  of  his  disciples  could 
do  even  greater  things  than  these  if  they  trusted 
in  the  same  spiritual  forces  that  he  trusted  in. 
There  was  no  equivocation  in  this  assertion. 
He  said  plainly  and  repeated  it  many  times, 
"  Whatsoever  ye  ask  in  my  name,"  that  is,  with 
confidence  in  the  supreme  power  of  the  spiritual 
force  of  love,  "  that  ye  shall  receive."  "  Verily, 
verily  I  say  unto  you  he  that  believeth  on  me, 
the  works  that  I  do  shall  he  do  also;  and 


Jesus^  Solution  of  the  Problem       53 

greater  works  than  these  shall  he  do,  because  I 
go  to  the  Father."  "  If  ye  shall  ask  anything 
in  my  name,"  that  is,  in  the  spirit  of  love, 
"  that  will  I  do."  This  was  not  an  arbitrary 
gift  of  power,  but  was  an  assertion  that  was 
based  on  conforming  to  certain  laws,  and  these 
laws  were  the  spiritual  laws  of  faith  and  love 
that  he  knew  to  be  more  powerful  than  the  nat- 
ural laws  with  which  they  would  conflict  and 
which  they  would  overcome. 

The  third  thing  for  us  to  notice  is  the  most 
important  of  all,  as  it  constitutes  the  Good 
News  of  the  Kingdom  that  Jesus  came  to  pro- 
claim. The  Good  News  that  Jesus  brought  is 
this :  There  is  an  overworld  of  Love,  on  the 
border  of  which  humanity  stands,  and  there  is 
a  way  by  which  human  beings  may  pass  over 
the  border  into  this  higher  realm  of  the  spirit. 
This  message  of  hope  comes  into  a  world  of 
strife,  and  labor,  and  sickness,  and  hunger  of 
heart,  with  the  Good  News  of  a  way  of  ad- 
vance into  the  calm  and  peace  of  a  realm 
where  love  and  righteousness  and  rest  are  ever 
present. 

The  magnitude  of  this  Good  News  is  only 
realized  when  we  call  to  mind  the  wholly  un- 
satisfactory character  of  the  earthly  life.  We 
enter  into  the  natural  life  with  great  anticipa- 
tions, but  find  it  replete  with  disappointment 
and  failure.     From  earliest  days  until  the  end 


54  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

comes  we  find  ourselves  in  the  midst  of  un- 
sympathetic natural  laws  that  force  us  into  a 
struggle  for  existence  that  we  know  must  end 
in  ultimate  failure  and  decay  and  death.  The 
more  the  problem  of  human  life  is  studied  from 
a  scientific  or  natural  standpoint,  the  more  does 
it  become  a  mystery  of  suffering,  sin  and  de- 
feat. Within  there  is  the  constant  antagonism 
of  natural  desires,  appetites  and  passions,  that 
are  in  direct  conflict  with  certain  spiritual  as- 
pirations and  visions  that  seem  too  good  to  be 
true  and  almost  too  impossible  ever  to  be  real- 
ized. 

Into  the  dark  shadows  of  this  mortal  life 
Jesus  comes  to  proclaim  the  Good  ]^ews  of  a 
higher  Spiritual  Kealm  and  a  way  of  advance 
into  it.  He  tells  men  that  this  way  of  advance 
is  strait  and  narrow  but  whosoever  desires  may 
enter.  He  tells  them  of  the  difficulties  of  the 
transition,  but  also  tells  them  of  the  Heavenly 
Father's  sympathy  and  cooperation ;  he  tells 
them  that  all  the  forces  of  this  higher  Spiri- 
tual Eealm  will  coordinate  for  successful  prog- 
ress in  it,  of  all  those  who  are  ready  to  meet 
the  conditions. 

The  new  spiritual  life  is  not  something  that 
is  to  come  as  a  continuation  of  the  natural  life 
after  death,  but  is  a  present  quickening  and 
beginning  of  a  higher  type  of  life  within  the 
soul  here  and  now.     He  that  would  make  the 


Jesus*  Solution  of  the  Problem        55 

quest  for  the  spiritual  life  must  be  born  again, 
and  this  time  not  of  the  flesh  but  of  the  spirit. 
The  new  life  cannot  come  from  the  will  of 
man,  nor  from  intellectual  culture,  nor  from 
the  gradual  process  of  natural  evolution,  nor 
alone  from  a  father's  or  mother's  dear  love  ;  it 
can  only  come  when  there  is  present  a  real  de- 
sire for  a  better  and  more  unselfish  life,  a  will- 
ingness to  believe  and  trust  and  obey;  when 
the  new  spiritual  birth  comes  it  will  result 
from  the  meeting  together  of  human  aspira- 
tion and  divine  grace;  it  will  come  from  the 
fecundating  power  of  Divine  Love  Vitality 
acting  on  a  human  heart  that  is  already  recep- 
tive with  a  great  and  loving  desire  for  the 
higher  life  of  the  spirit. 

"  To  as  many  as  received  him,  to  them  he 
gave  power  to  become  Sons  of  God,  even  to 
them  that  believed  on  his  name;  which  are 
born  not  of  blood,  nor  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor 
of  the  will  of  men,  but  of  God."  * 

Many  sincere  and  earnest  students  of  Jesus' 
words  have  difficulty  in  "  visualizing  "  the  in- 
dependent reality  of  a  spiritual  life  ;  to  them  it 
seems  to  involve  a  kind  of  dualism  that  is  con- 
trary to  the  monist  basis  of  modern  science. 
It  appears  to  them  that  a  more  reasonable  in- 
terpretation is  to  think  that  Jesus  was  present- 
ing certain  spiritual  ideals  of  conduct,  that  if 

»  "  The  Good  News  of  a  Spiritual  Eealm,"  pp.  17,  47,  116. 


^6  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

accepted  and  followed  would  have  cultural 
value  in  the  development  of  character.  To 
them  the  Christian  life  is  a  process  of  spiri- 
tualizing the  natural  life. 

A  careful  study  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
shows  that  this  view  is  entirely  untenable. 
Jesus  had  in  mind  not  a  process  of  spiritual 
culture  for  the  old  life,  but  the  creation  of  a 
new  and  independent  life  of  the  spirit.  It  will 
not  be  living  the  old  natural  life  in  an  ideal 
way ;  it  will  be  "  a  new  life  in  Christ  Jesus." 
The  true  center  of  consciousness  is  to  be  ele- 
vated into  a  new  level  of  existence  where  love, 
reverence,  and  unity  reign,  and  where  selfish- 
ness, competition,  envy,  hate  will  be  left  far 
below. 

Then  Jesus  teaches  that  the  new  spiritual 
birth  will  be  sustained  by  suitable  spiritual 
food  as  it  is  written :  "  Man  shall  not  live  by 
bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceeds 
from  the  mouth  of  God."  Jesus  said:  "He 
that  drinketh  of  the  water  that  I  shall  give  will 
never  thirst."  "It  is  the  spirit  that  quicken- 
eth,  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing."  "  The  words 
that  I  speak  to  you,"  that  is,  the  spiritual  influ- 
ences that  emanate  from  Divine  Love,  "they 
are  spirit,  they  are  life."  "  Your  fathers  ate  of 
the  manna  in  the  desert  and  are  dead,  but  they 
that  eat  of  the  bread  that  I  can  give  shall  never 
die." 


Jesus'  Solution  of  the  Problem        57 

If  we  believe  in  Jesus,  and  that  means  to  be- 
lieve in  that  which  he  taught,  namely :  in  the 
supremacy  of  the  spiritual  law  of  love,  and  if 
we  sincerely  trust  in  the  sustaining  power  of 
the  Divine  Love  Vitality,  and  if  we  humbly 
and  gratefully  obey  the  spiritual  influences  as 
they  come  to  us  day  by  day  from  the  throne 
of  God,  we  shall  grow,  by  his  grace,  in  the 
spiritual  life.  The  roots  of  our  human  nature 
that  run  back  into  the  soil  of  the  natural  realm 
will  loosen  one  by  one  and  lose  their  strength ; 
and  the  bonds  that  hold  us  to  the  spiritual  will 
grow  stronger  with  every  passing  ye?,r,  until 
with  the  death  of  the  body  the  soul  will  be  free 
to  live  in  its  fullness  the  unfettered  life  of  the 
Spiritual  Eealm. 

Jesus  does  not  belittle  the  difficulties  of  the 
transition  and  growth.  He  says :  "  Strait  is 
the  gate  and  narrow  is  the  way  that  leads  to 
eternal  life  and  few  there  be  that  find  it."  He 
foretold  that  there  would  be  conflict  with  the 
natural  order,  that  the  institution  of  a  new 
order  would  necessarily  mean  conflict  with  the 
old.  He  said :  "  You  are  not  of  this  world, 
even  as  I  am  not  of  this  world."  "If  the 
world  has  hated  me,  even  so  will  it  hate 
you." 

The  interests  of  the  higher  spiritual  life  will 
often  conflict  with  the  natural  appetites  and 
the  easier  conditions  of  the  world,  and  to  live 


58  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

the  higher  spiritual  life  successfully  the  lower 
must  be  subordinated  to  the  aims  of  the  higher. 
As  long  as  we  live  in  the  natural  environment 
there  will  be  the  need  of  incessant  choice.  For 
a  time,  that  is,  until  the  death  of  the  natural 
body,  the  two  modes  of  existence,  the  physical 
and  the  spiritual,  must  go  along  together  and 
there  is  bound  to  be  more  or  less  friction. 

It  will  be  no  easy  task  to  establish  and  to 
develop  such  a  genuine  and  independent  spir- 
itual life,  and  yet  there  can  be  no  half  way. 
Jesus  urged  his  disciples  to  arouse  life  from  its 
apathy  and  resolutely  oppose  the  lower  desires 
of  the  natural  body  that  are  inconsistent  with, 
and  antagonistic  to,  the  aims  of  the  higher. 
He  said,  "  Ye  cannot  serve  two  masters."  Sin- 
cerity, gratitude,  loyalty,  faith,  love,  all  of 
them  spiritual  forces,  must  face  and  oppose 
and  overcome  selfishness,  laziness,  indulgence 
and  lasciviousness. 

The  opposition  is  not  ended  with  "  joining 
the  church."  The  new  birth  is  but  the  be- 
ginning of  a  life  and  so  long  as  the  soul  inhab- 
its its  natural  body,  so  long  must  it  expect  to 
be  obliged  to  make  hourly  choice  between  the 
natural  and  the  spiritual,  between  the  lower 
and  the  higher,  between  the  evil  and  the  good. 
Devoting  one's  self  to  the  quest  of  the  spiritual 
life  does  not  create  these  oppositions,  they  are 
present  in  every  natural  life,  but  in  the  uncon- 


Jesus'  Solution  of  the  Problem       59 

seorated  life  the  aspirations  of  the  soul  seem 
but  evanescent  visions  that  must  fade  away  be- 
fore the  supposed  necessities  of  the  physical 
nature.  It  is  not  until  the  new  birth  that  one 
realizes  that  the  antagonism  between  the  natural 
passions  and  the  spiritual  aspirations  is  a  strug- 
gle for  the  life  of  a  soul ;  that  one  realizes  that 
the  so-called  necessities  of  the  natural  life  are 
not  necessary  or  essential,  and  realizes  that  the 
interests  of  the  spirit  are  higher  and  paramount, 
that  can  be  and  will  in  the  end  be  victoriously 
established.  The  old  and  natural  life  was  a 
struggle  for  existence  in  the  face  of  an  unsym- 
pathetic law  of  survival,  and  its  cycle  was  at 
best  only  one  of  growth,  labor,  a  temporary 
enjoyment,  followed  by  inevitable  decay  and 
death.  But  in  the  Spiritual  Realm,  into  which 
the  new-born  soul  has  now  entered,  all  the 
spiritual  forces  are  coordinating  for  the  tri- 
umphant and  endless  life  of  the  good  and  the 
true.  A  human  soul  that  is  reborn  of  the  spirit 
has  already  passed  from  the  realm  of  time  and 
natural  death  into  the  realm  of  the  timeless 
spirit ;  for  such  a  soul  there  can  be  no  such  a 
thing  as  failure,  or  actual  death. 

The  slur  that  used  to  be  cast  at  the  Christian 
life,  namely,  that  it  was  "  other-worldly,"  has  no 
point  when  we  correctly  understand  it  to  be  an 
adventure  for  a  higher  type  of  life.  As  Jesus 
calls  us  to  it,  it  demands  all  that  is  heroic  and 


6o  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

enduring ;  opposition  and  difficulties  will  be  on 
every  hand,  "  but  they  that  be  for  us  will  be 
more  than  they  that  be  against  us  "  and  we  can 
meet  them  with  confidence  and  zeal  and  se- 
renity. 

A  man  that  is  selfish  is  pitted  against  the 
world,  with  only  his  own  wits  and  strength  of 
body  to  help  him,  but  the  one  who  is  trying  to 
make  the  quest  of  the  spiritual  life,  the  unselfish 
life,  is  working  not  against  others  but  with 
others ;  he  is  living  in  a  realm  where  the  inter- 
ests and  the  welfare  of  the  individual  coincide 
with  the  interests  of  all.  Yes,  even  more  than 
that,  if  one's  life  is  unselfish  and  love  is  the 
controlling  motive,  he  will  be  living  in  har- 
mony with  the  infinite, — he  will  have  become 
an  integral  part  of  it — and  therefore  all  the 
energy  and  vitality  of  the  Spiritual  Kealm  will 
be  at  his  service  to  supply  his  every  need  and 
to  reinforce  and  complete  his  work.  There  will 
be  opposition,  but  it  will  be  external  to  the  soul, 
the  opposition  of  natural  desire,  the  desires  of 
others,  intrenched  and  vested  interests,  the  op- 
position of  evil  in  high  places,  enough  surely  to 
discourage  any  one  except  for  Jesus'  sympathy 
and  help,  and  the  fact  that,  "  All  things  will 
be  working  together  for  good  to  them  that  love 
the  Lord." 

In  spite  of  the  difficulties  and  obstacles,  Jesus 
insisted  that  there  need  be  no  down-heartedness 


Jesus'  Solution  of  the  Problem       61 

or  discouragement.  He  told  his  disciples  to  re- 
joice if  evil  was  spoken  against  them  falsely, 
and  to  count  themselves  blessed  when  perse- 
cuted. They  were  not  to  be  passive  and  quies- 
cent, they  were  to  be  virile,  active,  joyous  and 
useful;  and  no  matter  how  much  the  opposi- 
tion increased,  they  were  to  be  only  the  more 
kind-hearted  and  forgiving.  He  said,  "  Be  of 
good  courage,  I  have  overcome  the  world." 
"  My  grace  is  sufficient." 

Jesus  gave  them  no  complicated  rules  or  in- 
structions. He  summed  up  all  commandments 
into  two,  which  are  really  one.  "  Thou  shalt 
love  the  Lord  with  all  thy  mind  and  heart  and 
strength,  and  thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself."  Love  was  the  supreme  characteristic 
of  his  Kingdom,  love  was  the  law  of  the  Spiri- 
tual Kealm,  and  love  was  to  be  the  sole  rule  of 
their  lives.  Jesus  insisted  that  nothing  was  to 
come  before  love ;  one  was  to  forsake  native 
land,  and  home,  and  father  or  mother,  and 
brethren  and  business,  if  they  ever  conflicted 
with  love  and  spiritual  faith.  The  right  hand^ 
the  sight  of  the  eye,  even  life  itself  were  never 
to  be  valued  more  than  deeds  of  loving  kind- 
ness ;  and  there  must  be  no  limit  to  the  spirit 
of  forgiveness.  The  old  maxims  for  moral  con- 
duct were  set  aside.  He  said,  "  But  I  say  unto 
you,  love  your  enemies,  do  good  to  them  that 
persecute  you."    And  Jesus  set  the  highest  ex- 


62  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

ample  of  self-sacrificing  love  by  giving  himself 
a  ransom  for  the  sin  of  the  world. 

In  the  mind  of  Jesus,  Love  was  the  universal 
spiritual  energy  and  vitality.  Love  was  to  radi- 
ate from  the  Heavenly  Father  into  the  souls  of 
those  that  made  choice  of  the  spiritual  to  lift 
them  up  into  the  higher  life  of  the  spirit ;  and 
Love  was  to  radiate  from  each  redeemed  soul 
for  the  spiritualization  of  others. 

As  the  spiritual  life  develops  under  love- 
control,  it  will  express  itself  in  deeds  of  loving 
kindness.  The  love-controlled  life  will  interest 
itself  unselfishly  in  the  good  of  others  by  seek- 
ing the  betterment  of  individual  and  social  con- 
ditions ;  and  by  proclaiming  and  explaining  the 
Good  ]^ews  of  the  Spiritual  Eealm.  The  love- 
controlled  life  will  go  into  all  the  world  mak- 
ing disciples  among  all  nations. 

But  the  goal  for  such  a  love-controlled  life 
will  not  be  the  establishment  on  earth  of  ideal 
social  conditions,  nor  the  measure  of  its  success 
the  extent  of  social  betterment,  neither  will  it 
be  the  successful  living  up  to  one's  spiritual 
ideals.  It  will  be  something  far  higher  than 
that  and  far  more  difiicult  of  attainment ;  the 
goal  of  the  Christian  life  is  entrance  into  the 
Spiritual  Eealm.  And  the  hope  of  it,  the  vision 
of  it,  which  the  creative  energy  of  the  spirit  is 
ever  unfolding  is  that  which  will  buoy  one  up 
for  the  diflficulties  of  the  quest.     One  believes 


Jesus'  Solution  of  the  Problem        63 

that  ahead  of  him  are  new  beauties  and  new- 
delights  that  are  beyond  compare,  that  one  will 
be  advancing  from  glory  into  glory,  beyond  all 
that  the  mind  and  heart  of  man  can  think  or 
imagiDe. 

*^  Why  should  I  shrink  at  pain  or  woe, 
Or  feel  at  death  dismay, 
r  ve  Canaan's  goodly  land  in  view, 
And  realms  of  endless  day.'* 

Jesus,  by  his  earthly  life  and  teachings,  em- 
phasized four  things  in  relation  to  the  problem 
of  human  life. 

First,  He  revealed  all  that  we  know  about 
the  nature  of  God.  He  taught  that  God  was 
love,  and  that  while  he  was  Sovereign  of  the 
Spiritual  Realm,  he  could  best  be  understood 
by  men  as  their  Heavenly  Father.  In  an  in- 
finitely loving  purpose,  God  revealed  himself  to 
humanity  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  In  other 
words,  Jesus  was  the  incarnation  of  the 
Heavenly  Father's  love  for  the  world  of  men. 
Jesus  was  sent  into  the  world  not  to  judge  the 
world,  but  that  the  world  through  him  might 
be  tested  and  saved.  And  God  will  continue 
to  reveal  himself  to  the  world  in  the  work 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  is  the  Divine  Love 
Vitality  that  is  forever  generating  and  ener- 
gizing the  spiritual  life  of  those  who  believe 
in  him. 


64  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

Second,  Jesus  revealed  the  fact  that  there 
were  two  levels  of  reality,  the  material  uni- 
verse of  nature  with  which  we  are  familiar, 
and  a  Spiritual  Kealm  or  overworld,  whose 
characteristic  is  its  law  of  love. 

Third,  Jesus  asserted  that  the  spiritual  law 
of  love  was  operative  not  only  in  the  Spiritual 
Kealm  but  also  in  the  world  of  nature  as  well, 
and  that,  when  it  was  appealed  to  in  humble 
and  devout  and  loving  faith,  it  was  supreme 
over  all  natural  laws. 

Fourth,  Jesus  revealed  the  way  by  which 
human  beings  could  transcend  nature  and  ad- 
vance into  the  Spiritual  Kealm.  This  way  of 
salvation  was  the  Gospel,  the  Good  News, 
which  Jesus  brought  to  earth.  This  summons 
the  followers  of  Jesus  to  a  quest  for  the  spir- 
itual life;  it  calls  for  a  sincere  belief  in  the 
spiritual  law  of  love,  a  whole-hearted  trust  in 
it,  and  a  humble  and  grateful  obedience  to  its 
demands. 

Jesus  calls  on  all  men  everywhere  to  believe 
in  the  goodness  of  God,  to  believe  in  the  reality 
of  a  Spiritual  Kealm,  to  have  faith  in  the  su- 
premacy of  the  spiritual  law  of  love,  and  to  be 
willing  to  follow  the  way  of  salvation  into  the 
spiritual  overworld  of  love.  He  calls  upon  all 
men  everywhere  to  repent  of  evil,  and  to  under- 
take the  quest  for  a  higher  life  of  the  spirit 
along  the  way  of  love  which  he  has  revealed  to 


Jesus'  Solution  of  the  Problem       65 

them.  He  urges  them  to  be  willing  to  make 
any  sacrifice,  to  seek  it  as  they  would  for  a 
hidden  treasure,  and  promises  to  those  who  are 
willing  to  forsake  all  else  for  the  sake  of  this 
quest  a  hundredfold  in  this  life  and,  in  the  age 
to  come,  eternal  life. 

Men  set  out  on  a  quest  for  the  Antarctic  pole 
with  great  publicity  and  acclaim ;  they  endure 
the  most  extreme  hardships  and  danger,  and 
when  they  return  they  are  proclaimed  as  he- 
roes; they  are  flattered  and  feted  and  deco- 
rated. Men  must  set  out  on  the  quest  for  the 
Spiritual  Kealm  in  obscurity  and  humilicy,  and 
they  will  often  be  opposed  and  laughed  at  and 
maligned ;  but  with  faith  and  trust  and  humble 
obedience  they  must  press  on  towards  the  mark 
of  the  high  calling.  The  quest  for  the  Spiritual 
Eealm  calls  for  the  highest  courage  and  heroism, 
for  it  will  be  beset  with  difficulties  and  dangers ; 
the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eye,  and  the 
pride  of  life,  will  all  conspire  to  distract  atten- 
tion, to  discourage  and  to  overcome ;  but,  if  the 
loving  purpose  to  seek  first  the  Kingdom  of  God 
is  held  firmly  all  the  necessities  of  the  physical 
life  will  be  forthcoming,  and  within  the  soul 
there  will  be  increasing  calm  and  peace,  and 
the  fires  of  faith  and  love  will  burn  brightly 
and  steadily. 

And  when  the  journey  of  life  is  over  and  the 
quest  is  ended,  amid  the  rejoicing  of  the  Angels 


66  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

in  Heaven  over  the  one  more  who  has  reached 
the  goal  and  entered  into  the  fulhiess  of  Life, 
there  will  be  heard  the  voice  of  the  One  who 
taught  men  the  way  and  called  them  to  the 
quest,  saying :  "  Well  done,  good  and  faithful 
servant." 


Ill 

How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught 


**  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  a?id  are  heavy  laden ^ 
and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  my  yoke  upon  you  and 
learn  of  me  ;  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  of  heart :  and  ye 
shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls  ;  for  my  yoke  is  easy  and  my 
burden  is  lights — Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

" //  is  the  Messiahy  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  I  proclaim; 
I  am  only  your  servant  for  Jesus*  sake.  For  God  who 
saidy  *  Light  shall  shine  out  of  darkness,*  has  shone  within 
my  hearty  so  that  even  I  might  illumine  men  with  the  light 
of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God,  that  was  radiant  in 
the  face  of  the  Messiah.  But  I  bring  this  treasure  to  you 
in  an  earthen  vessel,  that  it  may  be  evident  that  its  tran- 
scending power  belongs  to  God  and  not  to  myself.** 

— Paul  to  the  Corinthians. 

"  Thou  hast  made  us  for  Thyself  and  our  hearts  can 
find  no  rest  until  they  rest  in  Thee.** — St.  Augustine. 

"  This  is  the  power  or  virtue  of  love,  that  it  maketh 
thee  to  be  like  unto  that  which  thou  lovest.** 

— St.  Bernard. 

*'  O  my  sisters  !  who  can  describe  the  point  to  which  a 
souly  where  our  Lord  dwells  in  so  special  a  manner y  neglects 
her  own  ease  ?  ,  .  .  When  she  possesses  the  ceaseless 
companionship  of  her  bridegroom,  how  could  she  think  of 
herself  P  Her  only  thought  is  to  please  Himy  and  to  seek 
out  ways  in  which  she  may  show  Him  her  love.  It  is  to 
this  pointy  my  daughtersy  that  orison  tends ;  and,  in  the 
design  of  God,  this  spiritual  marriage  is  destined  to  no  other 
purpose  but  to  the  incessant  production  of  worky  work. 
.  .  .  To  give  to  our  Lord  a  perfect  hospitality,  Mar- 
tha and  Mary  must  combine.** — St.  Teresa. 


Ill 

How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught 

THE  question  is  often  asked :  "What  is 
the  Christian  life?  Some  say  that 
it  is  living  up  to  one's  spiritual  ideals. 
This  may  be  true,  but  it  is  not  a  satisfactory 
answer  because  it  is  too  indefinite.  A  better 
answer  is :  The  Christian  life  is  a  life  that  is 
lived  in  accordance  with  the  teachings  of  Jesus ; 
and  to  find  out  more  particularly  what  it  is, 
one  must  study  the  teachings  of  Jesus. 

In  a  long  conversation  which  Jesus  had  with 
his  disciples  about  this  very  question,  he  summed 
up  his  teaching  in  the  words  that  are  recorded 
in  Matthew  vi.  33  :  "  But  as  for  you,  my  dis- 
ciples, seek  first  the  Spiritual  Eealm  and  its  Law 
of  Love,  and  all  these  necessary  things  will  be 
forthcoming."  ' 

In  this  verse  there  are  four  important  ele- 
ments. First,  there  is  an  assertion  of  the  exist- 
ence of  a  Spiritual  Kealm  as  separate  from,  and 
more  to  be  valued  than,  the  world  of  nature. 
Second,  there  is  the  assertion  that  the  spiritual 
Law  of  Love  is  of  higher  potency  than  any 

» •*  The  Good  News  of  a  Spiritual  Realm,"  p.  80. 
69 


yo  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

natural  law.  Third,  there  is  the  earnest  ad- 
monition to  his  disciples  to  make  the  quest  for 
this  Spiritual  Kealm  and  its  Law  of  Love  their 
first  concern.  Fourth,  there  is  the  solemn  as- 
surance that  if  they  will  make  the  quest  for  the 
Spiritual  Kealm  their  first  concern,  that  all  the 
necessary  things  for  physical  and  natural  well- 
being  will  be  supplied. 

Involved  in  this  verse  also  as  a  logical  in- 
ference is  the  assertion,  which  Jesus  makes 
more  plainly  elsewhere,  that  there  is  a  Way 
along  which  this  quest  for  the  spiritual  life 
can  be  successfully  prosecuted.  Jesus  asserts 
that  there  is  a  way  to  live  so  that  one  can 
transcend  this  natural  life  and  advance  into 
the  Spiritual  Kealm.  The  Way  is  this,  he 
said,  you  must  believe  in  the  spiritual  law  of 
love  and  make  it  the  controlling  principle  of 
your  life.  There  is  a  depth  of  meaning  in  this 
word  "  Pisteuo,^^  which  our  English  Bible  trans- 
lates, believe.  It  means  not  only  an  intel- 
lectual belief,  but  an  emotional  trust,  and  a 
willing  or  volitional  obedience.  We  are  to 
have  faith  in  the  law  of  love  as  a  guiding 
principle  for  our  lives;  we  are  to  trust  the 
Divine  Love  Yitality  to  energize  a  spiritual  life 
process  within  us,  to  protect  us  from  harm,  and 
to  supply  the  necessary  things  of  the  natural 
life ;  then  we  are  ever  to  obey  the  spiritual 
influences  that  come  from  the   Sovereign  of 


How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught        71 

the    Spiritual    Kealm,   who   is  our  Heavenly 
Father. 

To  this  quest  for  advancement  into  the  Spir- 
itual Kealm  Jesus  is  ever  calling  humanity. 
Abraham  heard  it  in  the  call  to  forsake  his 
fatherland,  and  to  go  out  he  knew  not  whither. 
The  prophets  of  old  heard  the  call  and  voiced 
the  longing  of  their  times  for  its  realization  in 
the  coming  of  a  Messiah.  And  all  down  the 
ages  in  spite  of  the  distraction  of  this  mortal 
life,  the  soul  hears  the  call  in  an  aspiration  for 
a  higher  and  a  nobler  life. 

When  Jesus  was  asked  if  many  were  to  be 
saved,  he  said,  "  Strait  is  the  gate  and  narrow 
is  the  way  that  leads  to  eternal  life,  and  few 
there  be  that  find  it."  Some  are  simply  in- 
different ^to  the  call,  some  lack  courage  or  con- 
fidence, some  are  unwilling  to  pay  the  price. 
But  there  are  always  some  in  whom  the  desire 
has  taken  root  deep  enough,  who  are  willing  to 
take  the  first  step  in  faith,  that  is,  to  desire  to 
believe.  Then  the  Divine  Love  Vitality  can 
begin  his  gracious  work,  and  he  will  begin  it, 
and  what  is  of  more  importance,  will  see  it 
through  to  a  finish.  These  are  born  again, 
not  by  any  natural  process,  but  by  the  Will 
of  God  and  the  vitalizing  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Now  they  are  ready  to  begin  the 
quest  for  the  Spiritual  Eealm,  and,  by  God's 
grace,  so  long   as  they  continue  to  believe, 


72  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

and  to  trust  and  to  obey,  they  will  have 
passed  from  the  realm  of  natural  death  into 
the  timeless  life  of  the  Spiritual  Realm. 

The  design  of  this  sermon  is  to  bring  to  your 
attention  certain  results  of  the  study  of  the 
human  mind  and  its  religious  consciousness, 
that  I  think  will  be  of  help  to  any  one  that 
is  trying,  or  will  try,  to  live  as  Jesus  taught 
men  to  live. 

To  those  who  are  sincerely  desirous  of  living 
a  Christian  life,  this  sermon  is  offered  as  a  help 
to  a  more  intelligent  effort,  and  as  a  ground  for 
more  confidence  that  the  effort  will  be  surely 
successful.  If  the  sermon  awakens  a  deeper 
interest  in  the  souls  of  some  who  have  not  as 
yet  made  the  great  decision,  or,  if  God  grants 
it,  brings  some  to  a  present  decision  to  begin 
the  Christian  life  to-day,  it  will  be  a  very  deep 
satisfaction  to  the  preacher. 

The  old  and  conventional  conception  of  the 
Christian  life  was  that  if  one  believed  Jesus 
to  be  very  God,  repented  of  sin,  was  baptized, 
and  joined  the  church,  through  God's  grace 
his  past  sins  would  be  forgiven,  he  would  be 
helped  to  live  a  better  life  in  the  present,  and 
after  death  would  pass  into  a  place  called 
heaven.  This  is  all  right  if  rightly  under- 
stood, but  unfortunately  it  has  all  too  com- 
monly lost  its  meaning,  and,  to-day,  to  become 
a  Christian,   for   most  people,   simply  means 


How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught         73 

joining  a  church  and  leading  a  respectable 
life. 

This  is  all  wrong  and  unworthy.  To  live  as 
Jesus  taught  men  to  live  means  something  far 
more  active  and  distinctive.  It  means  turning 
the  back  on  the  old  worldly  life  and  setting 
out  with  courage  and  determination  on  a  life- 
long quest  for  the  spiritual  life.  It  calls  for 
a  new  control;  it  calls  for  a  different  life 
process.  The  natural  law  of  self-assertion  and 
self-preservation  is  to  be  set  aside  and  ignored, 
and  the  spiritual  law  of  love  is  to  have  right 
of  way. 

In  the  first  place  one  must  learn  to  distin- 
guish in  the  world  of  nature  two  classes  of 
interactions  that  are  of  vital  importance.  The 
first  class  of  these  interactions  tends  to  division 
and  disintegration,  and  the  second  class  tends 
towards  unity  and  synthetic  results.  It  should 
be  the  duty  of  every  one  that  is  seeking  to 
live  a  spiritual  life  to  keep  this  distinction  in 
mind.  One  should  make  it  the  rule  of  his  life 
to  always  ally  his  will  with  the  anabolic  or 
creative  forces,  and  to  shun  as  he  would  evil 
the  katabolic  or  disintegrating  forces  that  are 
forever  tending  to  break  down  health,  growth 
and  peace  of  mind.  In  fact  one  good  defini- 
tion of  sin  can  be  expressed  in  these  terms : 
Sin  is  the  conscious  repudiation  by  the  will  of 
the  creative  and  spiritual  forces,  and  the  alii- 


74  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

ance  of  the  will  with  the  natural  and  disin- 
tegrating forces.  Sin  is  the  conscious  checking 
of  spiritual  growth. 

All  animal  life  and  the  lower  orders  of  hu- 
manity are  practically  creatures  of  impulse. 
As  humanity  rises  in  the  scale  of  worth  they 
more  and  more  give  attention  to  the  suggestions 
of  the  mind  and  seek  to  control  impulse  by 
reason.  In  fact  the  secret  of  virile,  strong 
character  lies  in  its  ability  to  see  clearly,  think 
wisely,  and  act  promptly  and  definitely  accord- 
ing to  some  self-determined  motive.  This  is 
also  the  prerequisite  for  attaining  spiritual 
growth,  the  self-determined  motive  being  the 
determination  to  conform  one's  life  to  the  spir- 
itual law  of  love. 

After  deciding  to  live  a  Christian  life  accord- 
ing to  this  dominant  motive,  the  first  thing  to 
be  done  is  to  so  commit  one's  self  to  it  that 
there  will  be  no  backing  out ;  ally  yourself  with 
some  Christian  activity ;  let  the  whole  world 
know  that  you  have  decided  to  be  a  Christian. 
There  is  a  subtile  danger  in  thinking  that  one 
can  live  the  Christian  life  in  secret.  The  temp- 
tations to  conform  to  conventional  rules  and  to 
relax  effort  are  so  ever  present  and  so  seductive 
that  they  are  almost  irresistible,  unless  one 
boldly  and  decidedly  takes  a  public  stand  and 
commits  himself  unreservedly  to  the  under- 
taking. 


How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught        75 

Jesus  said :  "  Whosoever  therefore  shall  con- 
fess me  before  men,  him  will  I  confess  before 
my  Father  who  is  in  heaven." 

Thenceforth  the  task  will  be  to  ally  the  will 
constantly  and  steadily  with  the  spiritual  and 
creative  forces.  One  must  at  once  and  perma- 
nently forsake  companionship  and  alliance  with 
worldly-minded  people,  and  ever  after  associate 
and  cooperate  with  those  who  are  like  minded 
in  undertaking  the  spiritual  quest  in  the  spirit 
of  Jesus.  We  shall  need  and  must  get  all  the 
advantage  we  can  from  the  sympathy,  encour- 
agement and  help  that  comes  from  community 
of  interest.  There  should  be  a  careful  conser- 
vation of  physical  health  and  vigor,  remember- 
ing that  the  body  is  to  be  the  temple  of  the 
Divine  Yitality.  We  should  live  temperately 
and  in  every  way  seek  to  protect  the  body  ex- 
cept when  the  supreme  law  of  love  calls  for  its 
intelligent  self-sacrifice. 

Just  as  the  gift  of  the  intellect  raised  primi- 
tive man  above  the  lower  orders  of  animal  life, 
so  the  later  gift  of  spiritual  intuition  ought  to, 
and  will,  raise  Christians  above  worldly-minded 
men. 

As  worldly  men  and  women  we  have  proba- 
bly lived  more  or  less  carelessly  and  selfishly,  just 
as  the  natural  impulses  and  desires  swayed  us. 
If  we  are  now  planning  to  live  as  Jesus  taught, 
we  must  clearly  understand  that  it  involves  a 


76  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

radical  change  in  the  control.  From  now  on 
we  must  learn  to  keep  all  thought  and  action  in 
harmony  with  this  one  definite  and  self-deter- 
mined motive,  namely,  that  whatever  we  think 
or  do  shall  conform  to  the  spiritual  law  of  love. 
From  this  time  on  there  must  be  no  more  easy- 
going, hit  or  miss  conduct.  We  must  be 
thoughtful,  industrious,  and  loving. 

Men  and  women  are  usually  controlled,  or  at 
least  influenced  by  certain  conventional  stand- 
ards, that  are  the  composite  result  of  the  evolu- 
tionary process,  of  special  environment,  and  of 
the  accumulation  of  personal  experience.  When 
a  choice  of  action  is  offered,  most  men  will  in- 
stinctively raise  the  questions :  Will  it  pay  ? 
Will  it  save  exertion  ?  Will  it  give  me  power  ? 
And  they  will  usually  be  governed  accordingly. 

With  most  women,  the  instinctive  questions 
will  be :  Is  it  becoming  ?  What  will  people 
say  ?    Is  it  a  bargain  ? 

These  are  the  natural  and  conventional  stand- 
ards of  conduct.  But  when  we  come  to  live  a 
spiritual  life,  our  standards  must  be  changed. 
We  must  learn  to  test  conduct  just  as  instinc- 
tively as  of  old,  but  now  by  spiritual  standards. 
Men  and  women  must  both  learn  to  test  choice 
and  action  by  new  instinctive  questions,  such  as 
these :  Is  it  wise  ?  Is  it  right  ?  Is  it  kind  ? 
If  we  do  this  we  shall  be  conscious  of  an  in- 
creasing spiritual  freedom ;  we  shall  be  conscious 


How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught        77 

of  a  richer  life  and  deeper  joys.  We  shall  be 
conscious  of  what  Jesus  said  we  should  be 
conscious  of,  namely,  a  more  abounding  life, 
because  for  us,  "  The  law  of  the  spiritual  life  in 
Jesus  Christ  will  have  made  us  free  from  the 
law  of  sin  and  death;  for  to  be  spiritually 
minded  is  life  and  peace." 

Now  to  keep  our  lives  under  the  control  of 
spiritual  motives  we  shall  find  to  be  no  easy 
task.  We  have  for  so  long  a  time  given  in  to 
natural  desires  and  to  selfish  willfulness,  that 
we  shall  find  it  has  become  almost  second  na- 
ture to  do  so,  and  to  turn  sharp  around  and 
attempt  to  control  our  lives  by  unselfish  and 
spiritual  motives  we  shall  find  to  be  well-nigh 
impossible. 

We  shall  find  to  be  true  in  our  own  lives  what 
Paul  found  to  be  a  fact  in  his  own  life,  when  he 
said :  "  For  I  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after 
the  inward  man,  but  I  see  in  my  members 
another  liaw  warring  against  the  law  of  the 
mind  and  bringing  me  into  captivity  to  the  law 
of  sin  which  is  in  my  members." 

We  shall  find  that  we  are  more  under  the 
control  of  our  physical  bodies  than  we  ever 
imagined  to  be  possible.  We  shall  find  that 
we  are  practically  helpless  to  live  the  life  we 
aspire  to  live  without  some  outside  aid.  The 
question  will  come  to  our  lips  very  early: 
"  Have  I  to  fight  this  battle  alone  ?  or  is  there 


78  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

some  help  that  I  can  depend  on  ?  "  Very  fortu- 
nately there  is  such  help  in  the  spiritual  law  of 
love.  The  law  of  love  is  not  some  beautiful 
ideal  that  dances  away  as  one  seeks  it ;  the  law 
of  love  is  spiritual  vitality ;  it  is  the  power  of 
God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believes  it. 

The  spiritual  life  is  not  something  that  we 
can  win  for  ourselves,  it  is  not  something  that 
we  can  put  on  as  we  put  on  a  garment ;  neither 
is  it  a  Pullman  car  that  will  carry  us  to  our 
destination  without  effort  on  our  part.  The 
spiritual  life  is  a  higher  life  of  the  soul,  and  if 
we  are  to  attain  unto  it,  it  can  only  be  by  the 
grace  of  Him  who  is  above  all,  and  according 
to  his  Way.  All  we  can  do  is  to  keep  ourselves 
in  a  favorable  attitude,  in  a  receptive  condition 
for  the  creative  work  of  the  Divine  Love  Vi- 
tality. We  cannot  even  begin  the  spiritual  life 
process,  but  the  Divine  Love  can. 

The  spiritual  life  has  its  cycle,  just  as  the 
natural  life  has.  The  spiritual  cycle  is  first 
vision,  and  then  desire  and  awakening,  enlight- 
ening and  discipline,  humiliation  and  self -empty- 
ing, and  then  a  blessed  sense  of  union  with  the 
divine  life. 

Nevertheless  we  must  ever  remember  that 
the  spiritual  life  process  demands  our  most 
earnest  and  sincere  cooperation.  We  must  sin- 
cerely desire  to  live  the  spiritual  life ;  we  must 
be  willing  to  give  up  everything  and  face  any- 


How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught        79 

thing  to  reach  the  goal.  We  must  plan  and 
work  as  though  everything  depended  on  us; 
and  yet  believing  all  the  time  (and  what  a  satis- 
faction and  a  hope  there  is  in  the  thought)  that 
God's  grace  is  sufficient  and  that  he  careth  for 
us. 

While  we  are  aspiring  to  the  spiritual  life, 
and  Love  Vitality  is  energizing  it  within  us  we 
must  ever  remember  that  we  are  still  subject  to 
natural  law  and  that  our  old  habits  of  worldly 
indulgence  are  strong  upon  us,  and  must  by 
God's  grace  be  overcome.  As  we  have  already 
pointed  out,  our  danger  will  lie  in  consciously 
or  unconsciously  allying  our  wills  with  the 
katabolic  forces  of  nature.  The  danger  will 
lie  along  three  or  four  lines ;  and  there  we  must 
ever  be  on  our  guard. 

First.  We  are  naturally  impulsive,  that  is, 
we  easily  give  way  to  any  emotion,  to  impa- 
tience, anger,  pride,  selfishness  and  intemper- 
ance in  every  form. 

Second.  We  are  naturally  lascivious,  that  is, 
we  dally  with  sensual  thoughts  and  desires. 

Third.  We  are  naturally  lazy.  We  do  not 
exert  ourselves  except  under  compulsion. 

Fourth.  We  are  naturally  selfish.  We  think 
too  much  of  our  personal  pleasures  and  com- 
fort. 

Let  us  look  at  these  dangers  dispassionately. 
First  of  all  we  note  that  back  of  each  is  some 


8o  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

good  purpose.  Back  of  laziness  is  a  legitimate 
care  for  one's  body  that  health  and  strength  be 
conserved.  Back  of  gluttony  is  nature's  call 
to  replenish  constantly  one's  strength  both 
physical  and  mental.  Back  of  lasciviousness 
is  nature's  wise  provision  for  the  constant 
renewing  of  the  race  through  reproduction. 
Back  of  selfishness  is  the  power  of  personality 
by  reason  of  which  the  human  being  is  enabled 
to  survive  in  the  struggle  for  existence  and  to 
protect  himself  from  all  inferiority. 

Another  thing  that  we  notice  as  we  examine 
these  dangers  is  this,  that  these  natural  im- 
pulses have  an  intensity  and  power  over  us  that 
it  is  foolish  to  belittle.  The  fact  of  it  is  that 
these  natural  desires  are  so  strong  that  no  one 
can  long  resist  them  by  the  direct  action  of  the 
will  alone.  The  mind  and  the  affections  will 
protest,  and  the  will  may  offer  a  temporary  re- 
sistance, but  sooner  or  later,  unless  some  outside 
help  comes  to  one's  assistance,  the  natural  de- 
sires will  prevail  and  lead  one  into  excess  and 
sin  and  away  from  the  spiritual  life. 

These  temptations  will  come  without  a  mo- 
ment's warning  and  will  not  be  ordered  away ; 
what  are  we  to  do,  in  what  manner  are  we  to 
discriminate  between  the  good  and  the  bad,  in 
what  manner  are  we  to  meet  these  natural  de- 
sires so  that  we  may  with  confidence  expect  to 
dominate  them,  and  how  will  this  outside  aid 


How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught        8l 

come  to  our  assistance  so  that  we  may  live  a 
spiritually  victorious  life  ? 

Well,  we  mustn't  expect  supernatural  aid 
until  we  really  need  it ;  first  of  all  we  must 
learn  to  stop  and  think.  We  have  already 
pointed  out  that  the  lower  types  of  character 
act  on  impulse ;  we  who  are  trying  to  live  a 
higher  and  spiritual  life  must  learn  to  stop  and 
think  before  we  act.  This  habit  of  attention 
enables  one  to  bring  to  the  reinforcement  of 
the  will  the  advantage  of  calm  and  considered 
judgment.  In  other  words,  habits  of  wise  self- 
control  can  only  come  by  habitually  ceasing  to 
act  on  impulse  and  by  habitually  taking  suffi- 
cient time  to  think  before  acting. 

To  secure  this  advantage  of  self-control  we 
must  train  our  minds  to  habitually  think  good 
thoughts,  and  avoid  as  we  would  poison  the 
lazy  habit  of  letting  the  mind  wander  and 
dally  with  seductive  thoughts.  And  thoughts 
of  pride  and  envy,  of  anger  and  hatred,  of 
gloom  and  dissatisfaction,  are  just  as  bad ;  they 
are  katabolic ;  they  all  tempt  one  to  act  on 
impulse  and  to  resist  wise  control. 

We  must  habitually  crowd  out  these  wicked 
thoughts  by  good  thinking.  As  Paul  said : 
"  Whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatsoever  things 
are  honest,  whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatso- 
ever things  are  pure,  and  lovely  and  of  good 
report,  if  there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  there  be 


82  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

any  praise,  think  on  these  things."  If  we  do 
this  kind  of  thinking,  then  Paul's  benediction 
will  surely  be  ours :  "  And  the  peace  of  God 
which  passeth  all  understanding  shall  keep 
your  hearts  and  minds  through  Christ  Jesus." 

Cherish  visions  of  spiritual  ideals,  and  let  the 
heart  feed  on  them,  as  though  it  was  the  bread 
of  the  new  life. 

It  is  a  good  thing  to  repeat  to  oneself 
phrases  that  relate  to  our  new  principle  of  con- 
duct. 

"  I  am  a  child  of  God." 

"I  am  not  under  natural  law,  but  under 
grace." 

"  Love  is  infinite  and  supreme." 

"  God  is  Love." 

The  point  is  to  keep  the  mind  busy  with  good 
thoughts  that  are  creative  in  themselves,  and 
leave  it  no  time  for  idle  day-dreams,  or  wicked 
and  sensual  thoughts,  or  morbid  and  discourag- 
ing thoughts,  all  of  which  tend  to  unrest  and 
disease  and  disintegration. 

Use  all  available  time  for  quiet  constructive 
thinking,  seek  to  formulate  reasons  for  believ- 
ing that  spiritual  and  loving  conduct  is  wisest 
and  best.  Exercise  memory  by  recalling  all 
the  good,  the  true  and  beautiful  happenings  of 
the  day.  Be  on  the  lookout  all  the  time  for 
examples  and  ideals  of  nobility  and  goodness. 
Kecall  to  mind  the  blessings  in  your  own  life, 


How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught        83 

the  things  that  have  made  you  happy  and  for 
which  you  are  grateful.  Take  time  every  day 
to  plan  for  the  doing  of  little  kindnesses  and 
favors  for  those  that  are  near,  and  especially 
for  the  poor,  the  sick  and  the  despondent. 

If  one  is  in  the  habit  of  thinking  good 
thoughts  and  acting  promptly  on  their  sugges- 
tion, then  in  times  of  sudden  temptation  from 
the  natural  desires,  the  will  will  more  probably 
act  in  the  right  direction  than  it  otherwise 
would.  The  habit  of  always  doing  the  wise 
and  the  kind  thing,  as  the  mind  suggests  it,  is 
of  the  utmost  importance  and  should  be  exercised 
daily,  exactly  as  we  use  gymnastics  to  strengthen 
the  muscles. 

Then  there  is  another  advantage  to  be  gained 
by  quiet  contemplative  thought  and  that  is,  that 
it  trains  one  to  detach  the  thoughts  from 
material  things  and  to  ^  them  on  spiritual 
levels.  To  be  able  to  do  this  is  of  double  ad- 
vantage. First,  it  enables  one  to  rise  out  of  the 
blind  alley  of  scientific  naturalism  into  the 
freedom  of  the  spirit.  And  secondly,  it  enables 
one  to  appreciate  and  to  enjoy  the  finer  delights 
of  the  spirit. 

We  are  so  much  in  the  habit  of  attending 
moving  picture  shows  and  counting  things,  that 
it  is  no  easy  thing  to  accustom  oneself  to  devout 
and  attentive  spiritual  contemplation.  Saint 
Augustine  had  the  same  difSculty.     He  said : 


84  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

"  I  strove  vehemently  against  the  swarm  of 
visual  images,  which  crowded  upon  me,  and 
tried  to  drive  them  off,  but  scarcely  had  I 
beaten  them  away  when,  lo,  they  gathered 
again  and  rushed  into  my  face  and  blinded  my 
eyes."  To  accustom  oneself  in  receptive  atten- 
tion to  the  silent  immaterial  flow  of  spiritual 
currents  in  their  eternal  and  creative  process  of 
becoming,  is  fitting  oneself  for  a  higher  univer- 
sity of  life  and  for  sharing  in  the  ecstasies  of 
the  saints. 

But  the  habit  of  keeping  the  mind  clear  and 
active  cannot  save  us  entirely  from  sin.  As  a 
power  to  resist  temptation  it  is  relatively  weak, 
but  if  we  harbor  good  thoughts  they  will  at 
least  crowd  out  that  much  evil  thinking,  and 
will  often  carry  us  over  the  moments  of  especial 
danger,  and  give  us  time,  as  it  were,  to  call  up 
our  reserves. 

The  reason  that  mental  control  is  relatively 
weak  is  that  actions  are  directly  controlled  by 
the  will,  which  in  turn  is  controlled  by  the  pre- 
dominant desire.  The  mind  can  offer  sugges- 
tions only,  but  these  suggestions  are  of  the 
highest  value,  because  they  are  based  on 
thought  and  are  therefore  more  to  be  relied 
upon  than  impulse. 

But  the  mind  after  all  is  relatively  weak 
when  used  in  direct  ways  to  resist  temptation. 
Fortunately,  however,  there  are  other  indirect 


How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught        85 

ways  in  which  the  mind  works,  that  give  far 
more  promise  of  assistance.  While  the  mind 
has  small  control  over  the  will  when  natural 
desire  is  present,  it  has  comparatively  large 
control  over  muscular  motion  where  desire 
does  not  so  largely  enter  in.  Whenever  dan- 
ger threatens  safety  may  lie  in  muscular  mo- 
tion. Get  busy !  Move  away  from  the  dan- 
gerous location  or  situation.  Engage  in  some 
activity  that  requires  attention.  This  finds 
the  vulnerable  point  in  natural  desire,  for  in 
spite  of  their  power  and  intensity,  most  nat- 
ural desires  are  spasmodic  and  transient ;  their 
intensity  is  not  lasting  but  is  intermittent.  If 
we  can  keep  busy  we  can  tire  out  the  most 
insistent  temptation.  The  old  saying  is  very 
deeply  true,  "  Satan  always  finds  some  evil  for 
idle  hands  to  do." 

Labor,  then,  is  man's  good  friend.  It  not 
only  helps  to  avoid  temptation,  but  it  keeps 
the  physical  body  free  and  active  and  the 
spirit  joyous ;  the  red  blood  flows  more  freely 
in  labor ;  we  are  alert  and  cheerful.  In  honest 
labor  we  banish  time  and  worry;  we  realize 
objectively  our  mental  visions ;  we  dominate 
nature ;  we  transform,  we  produce,  we  create, 
we  are  very  gods  if  we  labor. 

In  fact  we  may  almost  say  that  the  only  sin 
is  laziness.  For  through  wise  habits  of  in- 
dustry all  other  besetting  sins  may  be  over- 


86  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

come.  On  the  other  hand,  laziness,  if  it  be- 
comes chronic,  inevitably  results  in  moral 
decay,  spiritual  barrenness,  and  physical  dis- 
integration. It  is  not  the  working  man  that 
is  tempted  to  be  a  glutton,  to  be  intemperate, 
to  be  lascivious,  but  it  is  the  idle,  the  pam- 
pered and  the  rich.  Intemperance,  gambling, 
love  of  excitement,  dissipation  come  with  idle- 
ness and  not  from  action.  This  is  especially 
true  of  lasciviousness.  Idle  day-dreams,  lying 
abed  after  sleep  is  ended,  dallying  with  sexual 
suggestions,  inviting  opportunities,  are  the 
beginning  of  sin,  and  work,  good,  honest, 
productive  work  is  salvation.  That  other 
besetting  sin,  selfish  impulsiveness,  will  also 
disappear  in  labor.  Who  can  be  angry,  or 
proud,  or  revengeful,  or  censorious,  very  long 
when  busy  at  some  creative  labor  ? 

Through  happy,  cheerful  work  we  transform 
spiritual  energy  into  physical  results.  Serenity, 
cheerfulness,  hope,  enthusiasm,  faith  and  love 
are  spiritual  forces  that  in  labor  undergo  a 
transformation  of  energy  that  restores  mus- 
cular and  nervous  expenditure.  We  never 
tire  from  cheerful,  happy  labor ;  it  is  dis- 
content, worry,  resentment  that  make  of  labor 
a  burden.  It  is  only  when  we  have  our  own 
strength  of  body  and  mind  to  draw  on  that 
our  strength  fails.  But  when  we  are  laboring 
in  harmony  with  the  loving  purposes  of  God, 


How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught         87 

then  we  have  the  right  and  the  ability  to  draw 
on  the  infinite  store  of  energy  in  universal  Love, 
to  supply  our  lack  of  strength  and  failing  cour- 
age. 

If  disagreeable  kitchen  work  seven  days  in 
the  week  seems  unbearable,  if  the  day's  work 
in  factory  or  on  the  farm  is  uncongenial  and 
wearisome,  be  sure  of  this,  that  it  is  entered 
into  for  love  of  dear  ones,  for  honest  purposes, 
and  then  ask  for  and  expect  to  receive  strength 
for  the  day's  need.  Love  transforms  and  re- 
news our  strength ;  in  fact  a  labor  of  love  is 
worship.  The  heart  is  open  then,  as  in  prayer, 
to  receive  the  current  of  God's  Love,  and  as 
its  infinite  flow  passes  through  us,  it  becomes 
a  beneficence  to  the  ones  we  love  and  a  bene- 
diction to  ourselves. 

If  we  only  had  eyes  to  see,  we  could  detect 
a  constant  flow  of  current  passing  through  us 
at  all  times.  Sometimes  it  would  be  setting 
inward  towards  us  and  from  the  world  with- 
out, in  ambitious  plans,  selfish  greed  and  re- 
sentful purpose ;  at  other  times  it  would  be 
welling  up  from  within  and  overflowing 
towards  others  in  a  beneficent  tide  of  unselfish 
humility  and  loving  service.  Labor  is  natural 
if  it  is  done  for  selfish  gain  and  advantage  ;  it 
is  heavenly  and  spiritual  if  the  current  of  its 
purpose  sets  outward. 

If  it  is  true  that  self-forgetting  labor  for 


88  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

those  we  love  is  in  harmony  with  the  currents 
of  the  spiritual  life,  how  much  more  will  be  a 
sober  purpose  to  labor  unselfishly  for  the  good 
of  others  in  a  wider  sense !  There  is  a  tiny 
element  of  selfishness  in  the  kindest  labor  for 
one's  own  family  and  personal  friends  ;  a  safer 
and  a  truer  measure  of  unselfishness  is  a  pur- 
pose and  a  willingness  to  spend  and  to  be  spent 
for  the  good  of  those  that  are  outside  the  im- 
mediate circle  of  our  interests.  The  Heavenly 
Father's  love  broods  over  all  the  world,  over 
the  just  and  the  unjust,  the  penitent  and  the 
impenitent ;  and  if  we  are  now  trying  to  live  a 
love-controlled  life  it  will  mean  not  only  being 
kind  and  helpful  to  the  "  heathen  "  in  foreign 
lands,  but  being  kind  and  helpful  to  the  police- 
man on  our  own  block,  to  the  wayward  daugh- 
ter of  our  own  wash-woman,  to  the  grocer 
that  frequently  gives  us  short  weight  by  mis- 
take. 

A  truly  love-controlled  life  will  feel  a  re- 
sponsibility for  the  betterment  of  social  con- 
ditions near  home  as  well  as  to  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth.  I  am  not  sure  but  working 
for  better  schools,  for  better  sanitary  conditions, 
for  better  public  administration,  for  less  outlay 
and  dependence  on  coast  artillery  and  battle- 
ships, is  harder  and  less  appreciated  labor,  and 
yet  more  worth  while,  than  is  the  labor  of  the 
chairman    of    the  trustees    of    the    federated 


How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught         89 

boards  of  charity  organizations.  I  am  quite 
sure,  at  any  rate,  that  living  a  love-controlled 
life  in  one's  own  business,  or  profession,  in  the 
midst  of  selfish  and  dishonest,  although  con- 
ventional, ethics,  is  the  hardest  kind  of  labor, 
and  is  the  kind  that  the  Heavenly  Father  will 
highly  reward. 

God  is  not  so  much  concerned  by  the  impor- 
tance of  the  Grand  Opera  House  in  which  an 
act  is  staged  as  he  is  by  the  spirit  with  which 
the  act  is  played.  Telling  a  newsboy  on  a  cold 
winter's  day  to  "  keep  the  change "  is  easy, 
compared  with  standing  firmly  against  decep- 
tion on  the  part  of  one's  own  business  partner 
in  a  deal  that  promises  "  millions."  But  it  is  to 
the  latter  that  Jesus  will  say,  "  Inasmuch  as 
you  have  done  it  unto  the  least  of  these  my 
brethren,  you  have  done  it  unto  me." 

But  there  is  still  a  better  way  even  than  work 
to  meet  and  to  overcome  the  temptations  that 
lurk  in  natural  desires.  We  said  a  little  while 
ago  that  the  will  acted  according  to  pre- 
dominant desire.  Then  the  thing  for  us  to  do 
is  to  control  our  desires.  We  must  learn  to 
crowd  out  evil  desires  by  good  desires.  But 
above  all  things  we  must  avoid  all  hypocrisy, 
speaking  with  our  lips  and  saying  that  we  hate 
evil,  while  in  our  heart  of  hearts  we  are 
secretly  cherishing  it.  We  must  refuse  to 
cherish   evil   desires   even   secretly ;   we  must 


90  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

sincerely  and  persistently  disown  them  and 
hate  every  evil  thing ;  and  on  the  other  hand 
we  must  encourage  and  respond  to  every  little 
desire  to  be  good  and  true  and  unselfish. 

Natural  desires  are  seductive.  They  often 
come  to  us  in  beautiful  and  attractive  dress, 
but  we  must  ever  be  on  the  alert,  lest  they  de- 
ceive us,  and  if  we  are  to  get  rid  of  them  we 
must  root  them  out  from  their  hiding-place 
which  is  in  the  subconscious  mind.  To  control 
the  subconscious  desires  and  thus  to  secure  con- 
trol of  the  will  and  to  bring  the  life  into  harmony 
with  spiritual  ideals,  we  must  take  advantage 
of  the  only  power  that  is  strong  enough  to  do 
it,  and  that  is  the  power  of  love.  There  is 
nothing  comparable  to  the  expulsive  power  of  a 
new  affection.  The  thought  of  home  and 
mother,  of  love  for  one's  beloved,  affection  for 
one's  children,  devotion  to  one's  country,  these 
are  the  influences  that  reach  the  depths  of  one's 
nature. 

By  making  love  the  supreme  motive  of  life, 
by  always  cherishing  the  Love  Thought,  by 
always  striving  to  do  the  kind  deed,  we  may 
surely  control  our  subconscious  desires. 

It  is  easy  to  do  kind  and  loving  acts  for  those 
we  love,  even  when  it  costs  one  dearly ;  it  is 
hard  sometimes  to  love  our  enemies  and  to  be 
willing  to  do  good  to  them  that  despitefully  use 
us  and  persecute  us ;  but  even  this  becomes  pos- 


How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught        91 

sible,  and  almost  easy,  when  we  do  it  to  please 
some  one  we  love,  or  whose  good  opinion  we 
covet.  To  make  these  hard  things  easy  we 
must  keep  in  mind  father  and  mother,  or  one's 
best  beloved,  or  one's  hero  and  ideal.  If  we 
keep  these  dear  ones  in  mind,  the  emotion  of 
love  will  be  present  and  its  beneficent  power 
will  help  us  to  wise  self-control  and  therefore 
will  keep  us  from  evil. 

It  is  just  here  that  the  outside  help  that  the 
Christian  religion  offers  comes  to  our  assist- 
ance. If  we  are  trying  to  live  as  Jesus  taught 
men  to  live,  we  must  make  him  our  nearest  and 
dearest  friend,  for  he  can  be  to  us  what  the  liv- 
ing olive  trees  were  to  the  candlestick  in 
Zachariah's  vision,  a  never  failing  supply  and 
refreshm^ent. 

The  Heavenly  Father  sent  Jesus  into  the 
world  as  an  expression  of  His  own  Love 
Thought,  that  whosoever  believed  and  trusted  in 
Him  should  not  perish,  but  should  enter  into  the 
higher  spiritual  life.  "  For  in  that  he  himself 
has  suffered  being  tempted,  he  is  able  to  succor 
them  that  are  tempted."  There  is  but  one  way 
to  successfully  live  a  spiritual  life  and  that  is 
by  a  loving  faith  in  Jesus  as  one's  personal 
Saviour,  for  he  alone  can  profoundly  influence 
and  control  the  subconscious  desires. 

If  we  love  him  with  all  our  heart  and  mind 
and  understanding  ;  if  we  make  it  our  supreme 


gi  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

desire  to  please  him  in  everything  that  we 
think,  or  do,  or  say,  then  we  cannot  help  but 
be  successful  in  the  quest  for  the  spiritual  life, 
because  the  infinite  power  of  the  Divine  Love 
Vitality  will  be  abiding  within  us.  "If  you 
love  me,"  said  Jesus,  "  you  will  keep  my  com- 
mandments, and  he  that  loveth  me  shall  be 
loved  of  my  Father  and  we  will  come  and  make 
our  abode  in  him." 

The  presence  of  Jesus  in  the  heart  of  faith 
will  be  a  never-failing  source  of  spiritual  vitality 
that  will  forever  well  up  to  the  nourishment  of 
a  higher  spiritual  life.  There  will  be  an  in- 
creasing control  of  the  subconscious  desires,  and 
an  increasing  joy  and  confidence  in  the  reality 
of  the  spiritual  life. 

"  To  as  many  as  receive  him,  to  them  will  he 
give  power  to  become  sons  of  God,  even  to 
them  that  believe  on  his  name."  "  Therefore 
if  any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new  creature ; 
old  things  are  passed  away,  behold  all  things 
are  become  new." 

At  the  very  beginning  of  this  sermon  we 
called  attention  to  the  necessity  of  a  disci- 
plined will,  if  we  were  to  develop  a  higher 
t3rpe  of  character;  then  we  emphasized  the 
value  of  quiet  thoughtfulness  and  industry  if 
we  were  to  be  guided  into  right  ways  of  liv- 
ing ;  and  then  we  tried  to  make  clear  the 
necessity  of  making  love  the  controlling  pur- 


How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught        93 

pose  of  the  life  if  we  were  to  make  it  Christian 
and  successful  in  the  highest  sense. 

Students  of  modern  psychology  have  de- 
tected two  fundamental  desires  in  human 
personality  that  seem  to  point  to  a  higher 
life.  The  first  is  the  universal  desire  for  a 
higher  knowledge  of  truth,  and  the  second  is 
an  equally  universal  desire  for  a  deeper  expe- 
rience of  love.  One  seems  to  be  in  the  domain 
of  the  intellect  and  the  other  in  the  domain  of 
the  emotions,  but  like  all  things  that  relate  to 
the  human  mind  they  blend  together  in  a  deep 
yearning  to  know  in  order  to  love.  The  dis- 
ciplined will  can  awake  and  utilize  latent  and 
dormant  faculties  of  the  soul  which  will  be  of 
assistance  in  gratifying  these  desires.  It  is 
possible  ^o  bend  the  will  in  an  absorbing 
search  for  knowledge  as  an  end  in  itself,  but 
such  a  quest  will  almost  certainly  end  in  dis- 
appointment. The  better  way  is  to  hold  the 
disciplined  will  in  a  thoughtful  and  earnest 
purpose  to  seek  the  highest  truth  in  order  to 
love  and  to  be  loved.  If  we  can  see  this  high- 
est truth  in  Jesus  and  enthrone  him  in  our 
heart  of  hearts  he  can  lead  us  to  this  higher 
love  for  which  the  soul  hungers. 

Jesus  said,  "  1  am  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and 
the  Life.  No  man  cometh  unto  the  Father 
(and  that  means  to  the  spiritual  life)  but  by 
me." 


94  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

Jesus  is  the  Truth  in  the  sense  that  he  pro- 
vides the  intellect  with  a  satisfying  solution 
of  the  problem  of  human  life,  and  an  adequate 
and  consistent  and  reasonable  rule  for  the  con- 
duct of  life.  He  told  us  about  the  Heavenly 
Father  and  the  reality  of  the  Spiritual  Kealm  ; 
he  told  us  about  the  ideal  relations  of  that 
Kingdom  of  Love,  and  how  through  faith  we 
might  hope  to  enter  it. 

He  summed  up  all  the  essentials  for  cor- 
rect conduct  into  two  commandments:  Love 
towards  God  and  love  for  one's  fellow  men. 
That  is,  he  made  love  the  supreme  and  only 
motive  and  rule  of  life.  Nothing  was  to  come 
in  the  way  of  it,  neither  friends,  nor  property, 
nor  the  right  hand,  nor  even  physical  life  it- 
self. But  in  a  deeper  sense,  Jesus  did  more 
than  to  teach  us  about  Truth.  He  was  him- 
self the  Truth.  He  himself  revealed  the  char- 
acter and  mind  of  God ;  all  we  know  of  God 
we  have  seen  in  Jesus.  We  must  think  about 
truth  as  he  taught  it,  but  through  love  for 
him  and  trust  in  him  we  shall  come  to  appro- 
priate Truth  in  a  deeper  sense  than  the  in- 
tellect can  even  grasp  or  follow.  "  We  shall 
know  the  Truth  and  the  Truth  shall  make  us 
free." 

Jesus  is  the  Way  in  the  sense  that  through 
him  we  pass  from  the  natural  into  the  spiri- 
tual ;  through  him  we  have  access  to  the  Father 


How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught        95 

and  the  timeless  Life  of  the  higher  spiritual 
order.  Jesus  not  only  told  us  about  it,  he 
lived  it,  and  his  life  and  death  and  resurrec- 
tion become  the  way  of  life  to  us.  In  some 
mysterious  but  real  sense  Jesus  takes  us  into 
union  with  himself  and  by  so  doing  makes 
atonement  for  our  sin,  links  us  to  his  holi- 
ness, and  lifts  us  up  into  a  higher  life  of  the 
spirit.  "  I  live,  and  yet  not  I,  but  Christ 
liveth  in  me."  "  It  is  Christ  in  us,  that  is  the 
hope  of  glory." 

Jesus  is  the  Life  in  the  sense  that  he  is  the 
vitality  by  which  the  natural  man  is  enabled 
to  advance  into  the  spiritual  life  process. 
"  Yerily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  he  that  hear- 
eth  my  word  and  believeth  on  Him  who  sent 
me,  hath  eternal  life,  and  cometh  not  into 
judgment,  but  hath  passed  out  of  death  into 
life.  .  .  .  For  as  the  Father  hath  life  in 
himself,  even  so  gave  He  to  the  Son  also  to 
have  life  in  himself."  That  is,  the  essence  of 
the  spiritual  life  is  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  which 
is  the  vitality  of  Love. 

It  is  by  the  grace  of  God,  through  Jesus 
our  Saviour  that  we  are  enabled  to  resist  and 
to  overcome  the  otherwise  resistless  impor- 
tunities of  the  natural  desires  and  to  become 
children  of  the  Spiritual  Kealm.  It  is  the 
power  that  can  change  a  selfish,  impulsive 
man   into  a  loving  child  of  God,   and  it  is 


96  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

the  power  that  ultimately  will  make  of  all 
people  and  of  all  nations  one  Kingdom  of  our 
Lord,  for  God  is  Love. 

About  a  century  ago  with  the  study  of 
modern  science,  there  developed  a  school  of 
thought  that  tried  to  reduce  the  place  of 
Jesus  in  religious  history  to  that  of  a  su- 
perior teacher  and  of  a  perfect  manhood ;  he 
was  to  be  considered  as  the  highest  product  of 
spiritual  evolution  on  the  natural  plane ;  he 
was  even  to  be  considered  as  divine  in  the 
sense  that  he  more  than  any  other  man  re- 
vealed the  mind  of  God  to  men. 

But  this  limited  conception  of  Jesus  never 
satisfied  the  great  heart  of  the  Church  and 
has  not  stood  the  test  of  time ;  its  acceptance 
is  far  less  general  to-day  than  it  was  a  genera- 
tion ago.  There  may  be  more  hesitancy  to- 
day in  describing  in  words  just  what  we  mean 
by  the  divinity  of  Jesus,  but  there  is  no  doubt 
that  such  a  faith  constitutes  as  never  before  the 
very  basis  of  our  Christian  religion. 

Christian  faith  in  the  incarnation  sees  in  the 
historical  event  that  happened  two  thousand 
years  ago  the  breaking  through  of  a  cosmic 
process  that  is  being  repeated  continually  in  the 
personal  life  of  all  those  who  truly  believe  in 
Jesus  as  their  Divine  Saviour.  The  incarnation 
is  an  everlasting  bringing  forth  and  becoming 


How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught         97 

of  the  divine  and  spiritual  life,  the  pure  life  of 
the  Father  of  Love,  of  which  Jesus  was  the  per- 
fect revelation.  The  infinitude  and  perfectness 
of  Absolute  Love  is  too  high  a  Keality  to  be 
directly  communicated  to  mortal  minds.  There 
must  needs  come  through  the  veil  and  illusions 
of  time  and  sense  One  who  can  not  only  live 
and  teach  the  spiritual  life,  but  One  who  in 
himself  is  Life ;  one  who  can  reveal  love  and 
self-sacrifice  in  human  terms,  as  well  as  One 
who  in  himself  can  reveal  for  our  accommoda- 
tion the  infinitely  loving  heart  of  a  living,  throb- 
bing universe  and  its  Sovereign  Personality. 

Such  an  historical  event  is,  humanly  speak- 
ing, necessary,  if  human  life  is  to  be  lifted  up 
to  a  higher  plane  of  spiritual  life  and  be  shown 
that  it  belongs  there.  "  In  the  fullness  of  time 
this  Love  Thought  (Jesus)  was  expressed  in  a 
human  life  that  lived  among  us,  and  we  beheld 
his  glory, — the  glory  that  belonged  to  him  as 
the  only  begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace 
and  truth  ;  and  of  his  fullness  we  are  ever  re- 
ceiving grace  upon  grace."  *  It  is  this  quicken- 
ing communication  of  grace  from  God  to  man, 
in  a  form  that  is  assimilable  by  man,  that  is  the 
basic  warrant  for  the  Christian  faith. 

The  atonement  is  not  an  idea  simply  that  has 
value  to  the  intellect  as  an  example  or  ideal  of 
love,  for  Jesus  is  "  life  in  himself."    The  atone- 

1  "The  Good  News  of  a  Spiritual  Realm,"  p.  17. 


p8  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

ment  is  an  essential  principle  of  the  higher  spir- 
itual vitality;  it  is  the  living  way  that  the 
world's  wisest  and  best  have  longed  to  find  that 
they  might  see  God.  It  is  because  of  and 
through  the  humanity  of  Jesus  that  the  soul 
gets  a  first  true  consciousness  of  God  by  reason 
of  which  he  is  enabled  to  move  towards  the  as- 
cent to  the  spiritual  life.  How  else  could  man 
link  up  with  the  Infinite  except  through  some 
such  life  process  as  faith  in  Jesus  inaugurates  ? 
Without  the  historic  Jesus  the  tendency  of  faith 
in  God  would  be  to  magnify  the  immanence  of 
an  unconditioned  Absolute,  until  his  loving 
Personality  was  lost ;  with  Jesus  there  is  endless 
and  loving  communion  with  a  Heavenly  Father 
who  is  seen  to  be  both  immanent  and  tran- 
scendent. 

We  believe  Jesus  to  be  divine  because  we  see 
in  him  the  wisdom  and  the  power  of  the  eternal 
life  process  of  the  Spirit.  There  is  first  the 
devout  and  loving  desire  of  the  Galilean 
maiden  ;  then  the  welling  forth  of  Life  that  is 
more  than  life,  with  the  rays  of  glory  and  of 
music  piercing  the  clouds  of  earthly  night  and 
promising  celestial  peace  and  good  will ;  then 
there  comes  the  valley  of  humiliation,  the  ob- 
scure and  humble  birth,  poverty,  labor  and  temp- 
tation ;  then  comes  the  illumination  of  service 
and  contemplation ;  followed  by  "  the  dark 
night  of  the  soul,"  when  even  God  seems  far 


How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught        99 

away ;  and  then  through  the  death  of  the  body 
and  the  glorious  resurrection  comes  the  awak- 
ening into  realization  and  the  glad  return  to 
his  source  in  the  Father  of  Love.  But  even 
this  does  not  complete  the  cycle  of  the  eternal 
life  process  of  the  Spirit,  for  with  the  glad  re- 
turn to  union  with  the  Divine  there  comes  the 
joyous  days  of  harvest.  ''Except  a  grain  of 
wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and  die  it  abideth 
alone ;  but  if  it  die  it  bringeth  forth  much 
fruit."    Jesus  said,  "  I  will  come  again." 

The  first  fruit  of  true  wedlock  is  the  awak- 
ened vision  and  enthusiasm  for  service.  "  As  a 
bridegroom  cometh  out  of  his  chamber  and  re- 
joiceth  as  a  strong  man  to  run  a  race ; "  and 
the  corresponding  self-abnegation  of  mother- 
hood, rejoicing  to  suffer  all,  to  give  all  for 
mother-love.  The  end  of  the  quest  for  the 
spiritual  life  is  not  barren  ecstasy  in  communion 
with  the  Source  of  love,  but  implicit  within  is 
the  spirit  of  self-sacrificing  service.  The  soul 
that  has  passed  all  the  stages  of  the  quest  to  the 
Unitive  Life,  who  has  satisfied  "  the  divine  un- 
rest of  his  human  incompleteness,"  who  has 
been  so  signally  honored,  and  who  has  expe- 
rienced such  unspeakable  delights,  accepts  with- 
out question  as  an  integral  part  of  them  the 
pains  and  the  burdensome  duties  of  parent- 
hood by  gladly  becoming  a  source  of  fresh  spir- 
itual desire  and  life  in  others.    The  true  lover 


100  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

completes  his  personality  in  giving  it  up  in  self- 
sacrificing  devotion.  The  divine  "  elan  vital," 
that  is  back  of  all  high  desire,  is  not  impersonal, 
blind  force,  but  is  love-wise  and  makes  those 
who  yield  to  it  love-wise  in  a  life  of  kindly 
service. 

In  the  quest  for  the  spiritual  life  men  tran- 
scend the  natural  life,  only  to  return  to  it  in 
beneficent  lives  of  service,  as  creators  of  spiri- 
tual families,  as  fellow  laborers  with  Jesus  in 
the  work  wherein  God  has  set  him,  even  the 
redemption  of  the  world. 

Eckhart,  one  of  the  sanest  of  the  saintly  mys- 
tics, finishes  one  of  his  ecstatic  speculations  con- 
cerning communion  with  the  Unseen  by  saying 
abruptly:  "But  if  it  takes  not  place  in  me, 
what  avails  it  ?  Everything  lies  in  this,  that  it 
should  take  place  in  me."  Are  we  who  have 
caught  a  ray  of  "  the  light  that  was  never  on  sea 
or  land,"  are  we  ready  to  follow  the  gleam  ?  Are 
we  willing  to  let  this  spiritual  life  process  take 
place  in  us  ?  Are  we  ready  to  face  the  stress 
of  desire  and  humiliation  that  we  may  secure 
illumination  ?  Can  we  face  unflinchingly  "  the 
dark  night  of  the  soul "  that  we,  too,  may  ex- 
perience the  conscious  unification  with  the 
Father  of  Love  ?  Knowing  that  the  end  of  it 
all  will  be  to  return  to  our  own  place  and  our 
own  work,  to  spend  and  to  be  spent  in  a  simple 
life  of  loving  service  ? 


How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught       loi 

Yes — yes.  One  and  another  are  willing  and 
ready  to  begin  the  Quest.  At  first  the  only 
thing  you  will  be  conscious  of  will  be  a  deep 
and  constraining  desire  to  be  better,  to  be  more 
worthy,  and  then  there  will  mingle  with  it  a 
desire  for  sympathy  and  help.  This  is  the  time 
for  prayer,  for  communion  with  the  Heavenly 
Father.  Just  as  the  secret  of  physical  life 
seems  to  be  hidden  in  the  arterial  circulation  of 
the  blood,  so  the  secret  of  spiritual  life  is  in  the 
sincere  prayer  currents  of  communion  with  the 
Infinite  Father  of  Love.  "  Prayer  is  the  soul's 
sincere  desire,  uttered  or  unexpressed  "  Just 
as  soon  as  we  enthrone  Love  as  chief  of  our 
subconscious  desires,  just  so  soon  do  we  in- 
stinctively begin  to  pray.  If  the  soul's  sincere 
desire  is  to  be  loving  and  spiritually  minded, 
we  cannot  keep  from  praying. 

The  very  attitude  of  prayer  is  one  of  de- 
sire, of  receptivity;  at  that  time  the  soul  is 
nearest  attuned  to  spiritual  influences,  the 
channels  are  most  open  for  the  inflowing  of 
spiritual  vitality.  In  the  state  of  devout  prayer, 
one  has  put  aside  for  the  moment  the  natural 
faculty  of  the  intellect  and  is  employing  un- 
hampered the  spiritual  faculty  of  the  intuition ; 
one  is  feeling  out  after  God,  if  perchance  one 
might  find  Him,  although  He  is  not  far  from 
any  one. 

The  quest  for  the  spiritual  life  from  the  man- 


102  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

ward  side  is  an  adventure  in  faith  for  a  higher 
life,  and  in  the  experiences  of  that  adventure 
one  comes  to  know  the  inadequacy  of  human 
mind  and  strength  for  the  task  ;  at  such  a  time 
the  heart  turns  through  Jesus  to  God  for  divine 
guidance  and  strength,  and  God  is  more  ready 
to  give  than  we  are  to  ask.  His  answer  is  the 
indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Divine  Love 
Vitality. 

The  Godward  side  of  faith  is  the  work  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  energizing  a  spiritual  life  process, 
that  is  to  be  nourished  and  guided  and  protected 
by  the  Divine  Love  Vitality  that  enters  the 
soul  most  freely  during  the  moments  of  prayer. 
If  the  moments  of  prayer  become  less  frequent 
and  insincere  and  finally  are  omitted  altogether, 
then  the  new  spiritual  life  withers  and  dies. 
"  But  thanks  be  to  God  who  giveth  us  the  vic- 
tory through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  this  need 
never  happen.  God  has  willed  from  the  be- 
ginning of  the  world  the  redemption  of  his 
children,  and  so  long  as  they  pray  in  faith  and 
humble  trust,  He  will  perfect  his  work.  The 
Holy  Spirit,  indwelling,  will  teach  one  to  pray 
more  perfectly,  will  give  one  an  ever-clearing 
instinct  for  love  and  reality,  and  then  by  in- 
fused grace  will  lead  one  along  the  way  of 
humility,  through  true,  unselfish  service,  to 
union  with  Himself.  The  success  with  which 
one  will  follow  this  Way  will  depend  upon  the 


How  to  Live  as  Jesus  Taught      103 

intensity  of  his  love  and  faith,  his  capacity 
for  self -discipline,  his  courage  and  his  patience. 
But  if  he  move  at  all,  he  will  move  along 
these  well-marked  stages  of  desire  and  awaken- 
ing, discipline  and  enlightenment,  humility  and 
self-abasement,  into  the  fullness  of  the  spiritual 
unity  and  tranquillity  and  service. 

The  germ  of  spiritual  life  is  inherent  in  every 
human  being,  and  it  is  only  by  the  Divine  Love 
Vitality  that  it  is  quickened  into  life ;  but  it  is 
true  also  that  it  is  only  by  the  deliberate  foster- 
ing of  the  deeper  and  higher  self  that  this 
transformation  of  the  elements  of  character 
can  be  brought  to  fruition.  And  when  the 
human  soul  emerges  from  the  long  quest  for 
the  spiritual  life,  "  he  finds  himself  back,  almost 
where  he,  began,  a  little  child  on  his  father's 
breast,  and  in  that  most  dear  relation  finds 
all  feeling,  will,  and  thought  have  attained 
their  end." 

When  the  saintly  George  Matheson  as  a  young 
man  learned  that  he  was  to  become  incurably 
blind,  he  went  to  his  betrothed  and  offered  to 
release  her  from  the  engagement,  which  release 
she  accepted.  George  Matheson  returned  to 
his  room  and  in  the  loneliness  and  bitterness  of 
the  thought  of  his  condng  blindness,  he  strug- 
gled with  the  added  sorrow  of  the  loss  of  the 
one  he  loved.  In  the  agony  of  these  earthly 
losses,  his  deeper  and  higher  love  for  Jesus  held 


104  Jesus  and  Human  Life 

firm  and  he  wrote  out  the  beautiful  hymn  that 
must  close  these  sermons : 

"  Oh  Love  that  will  not  let  me  go, 
I  rest  my  weary  soul  in  thee ; 
I  give  thee  back  the  life  I  owe 
That  in  thine  ocean  depths  its  flow 
May  richer,  fuller  be. " 


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